Out of Body
by Kanarah J
Summary: Riku, enjoys a good brawl down at the harbor, despite all of Sora's complaints. When one fight goes too far, even Sora's first-aid kit isn't well stocked enough to handle Riku's latest battle reward: death. Forced to wander as a ghost, Sora struggles to help him return to his body...if he even can.
1. Frozen Peas

Hi all! Story number two post-hiatus is up. Special thanks to Hito Me Bore for putting up with me and my complaining. I have a few special notes and warnings. Please bear with the tl;dr author's note.

**Warnings: **Firstly, though this is intended as an overall light-hearted piece, due to the nature of the plot, character death _does _have to happen at some point. If that sinks your ship of happiness, I'm truly sorry. Keep in mind though that everything that I write usually has a happy ending—let's face it, life is already hard enough _without _me adding fictional badness into the mix—so without giving too much away, just know that your sunken ship will probably be patched up by the end of the story…depending on how you look at things…maybe.

Secondly—also relating to subject matter—certain discussion about death occurs here as well. This story is not out to make a political/religious/societal/psychological stance on anything. Mention of religion is nonexistent, and any reference to ghosts and the afterlife are intentionally neutral and nonintrusive so that it shouldn't have any impact on your own personal perception of life and death. READ: This isn't that deep of a story, people. It is my intent that you are free to read without having to worry that I'll offend you.

All that said, we're ready to roll.

**Disclaimer:** The characters used in this story are the property of Square Enix, The Walt Disney Company and their affiliates. No Copyright infringement intended.

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**Chapter 1: Frozen Peas**

* * *

Death was the unwelcome outcome to an unfortunate circumstance, Riku thought with a bitter taste in his mouth. More than he hated the strange tingly sensation in his limbs, and the uncomfortable coldness that crept up his spine every time he looked over at his lifeless body in the corner, Riku hated that Sora was _right._

Grumbling as best he could, not even sure if he was making a noise, he spared another glance at himself in the corner; he was a motionless heap with unkempt hair, unsightly bruises and blood splatters, a face as blank as the white of his skin. The cold sensation returned, and he chose to look away. This had certainly ended differently than how he had anticipated. Sora was going to lose it…

He flexed his fingers, and found that despite being unattached to his physical body, the movements were the same. They moved as if there were bones—notably _unbroken _bones—beneath the skin, and blood flowing through his veins. He was tingly, possibly still suspended in the apparition-version of shock, but he could move and that was all that mattered.

There were boxes around, two or three big enough to keep shipments of _whatever_ was supposed to be inside from spilling out. Riku hoped with all his might that they weren't fruit bins. The last thing he needed _on top _of being dead was to become the host of a writhing, buzzing nest of fruit flies and their maggots. His pride simply would not allow it. He flexed all ten fingers once again and made the decision to try something.

He half walked-half floated—_that _was new—to a nearby stack of the crates and attempted to pick one up. He remembered that he would now actually have to concentrate on picking up objects that were distinctly more physical than himself, so he did so and lifted the crate with relative ease.

He wondered what this might look like to a passerby. Would someone see a crate floating in the air? Would they see some poor muck with a broken face and the body to rival a limited-edition holographic trading card awkwardly shuffling around a graveyard of shipping crates? He chose not to think about it and settled on his task at hand. Whoever dragged him here had gone through the trouble of making sure that his body would remain completely hidden. All Riku had to do was improve the job.

The crates were moved, and within a matter of minutes his body was completely obscured by a tower of them. He felt a twinge of sorrow as he saw what was left of his face disappear behind the slotted wood, but he knew that this was best. He had a job to do, and if he had any hope of getting back to life, he was going to need to make sure that at least _this_ part of the secret remained…secret.

With a final glance at the body he knew was well-hidden, he forced himself to look away. His first task may have been complete, but the hard part was far from over. Somehow, he needed to find Sora.

And apologize.

* * *

"You really need to stop this," Sora said quietly from his seated position on his couch. This was the day before Riku decided his friend was just being too over protective.

Right before everything was ruined.

Riku tried to shrug as best as he could, but his dislocated shoulder protested. "Yeah, yeah," he said, hiding the grunt. "You sound like my mother."

"Pfft, if I sounded like your mother, you'd listen to me. Now hold still. This is going to hurt."

Riku nodded and waited, trying not to tense as Sora put one hand on the back of his shoulder, and the other around his bicep.

Sora pushed.

Riku closed his eyes.

His arm popped.

Riku felt tears at the corner of his eyes as the joint slid back into place, sending fire through his body, and a brief flicker of regret through his mind. He shook out the limb and held in any potential sound, mainly because he didn't want to admit that it hurt.

Sora rolled his eyes.

"What?"

"Don't ask me _what._ You know exactly what."

"I assure you, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Sora snorted and pushed himself off of his couch. "Whatever. Sit here, I'm going to get some frozen vegetables and what's left of my first aid kit. Sit still, and don't talk."

"Why can't I talk?"

"Because every time you open your mouth, I start to hate you." Sora sent him a glare that could quite possibly have ended the world, so Riku sat quietly.

In the dark.

In Sora's living room.

Riku rolled his eyes and allowed himself to change places from sitting on Sora's coffee table to the couch. It had been a long night. He didn't think he could stand much more than this quick patch-up job before crashing to sleep. Changing positions had actually turned out to be a bad idea, mainly because the shifting of his body lit his muscles on fire, but the soft material actually made him even sleepier. He knew that if he fell asleep though, that Sora would punch him awake, and _that_ would hurt more than getting his shoulder pushed back into place.

He had endured _more_ than enough punching for the day.

Sora returned moments after Riku felt his eyes droop anyway, and offered him a hearty slap on his uninjured shoulder. "You don't get to sleep."

"I wasn't!"

"Mmhmm. Here." He offered Riku a bag of frozen peas.

Riku just stared at them in his hand.

Sora mirrored the stare for a collection of seconds then rubbed his eyes and groaned. "Are you serious?"

"It's not that bad this time. I promise it isn't fractured, just a little out of place."

He scoffed and took Riku's wrist in his hand and not-so-gently examined it. "Are you sure it's not broken?"

"Positive."

"Hmph, you would know."

"I resent tha—Ouch!"

Sora snorted and popped the joint back into alignment, rubbing the area to reduce the pain, despite how much he thought Riku deserved it. "I'm not even kidding. I'm running out of frozen food. I'm going to starve."

"Yes, but look at how much munny you can make as a nurse!"

"I don't _want_ to be a nurse, Riku. I _want_ to go to sleep, preferably without worrying about my idiot friend, doing idiotic things!" He took the bag of peas and placed it over Riku's wrist, then shuffled off to get another few bags of various frozen foods. "What else do I have to fix?"

"Eh, how much tape do you have?"

"Enough for three fingers."

"Perfect."

Sora shook his head. "Riku, you have no idea how much munny you're going to owe me in medical bills alone. Good thing I don't charge you."

"Is it because you like my face?"

"No, it's because each time I patch you up, I get to deduct more charity work off my taxes. I thought I told you to stop talking."

"Yes, sir."

Riku did sit quietly as Sora finished up taping, icing, and patching up the rest of his admittedly battered body, but it was difficult. He wanted to say something to get the concentrated frown off of Sora's face, crack a joke, start up a conversation, _whistle._ Anything would do.

Sora sent him a glare every time he opened his mouth to do so, so he did his best and managed to stay quiet for the duration of the job. Silence was bothersome, but upsetting Sora had the potential for danger.

"There," he said at last, sitting back to admire his handiwork in the dark room. "That should hold you together until the morning at least."

Riku tested his limbs and agreed. Though he was still sore, he would indeed be fine until the next morning, quite possibly until the next _time_ too. "Thanks, Sora."

"Yeah, yeah." He glanced at the clock behind him. It was well after three in the morning. "I suppose you'll be wanting a place to crash for the night, too?"

"Nah, I can walk back."

"And let you ruin all of the hard work I just went through? Forget it. Stay here, I'll get a blanket and a pillow."

"But—"

"Stop talking!"

Riku sighed and nodded, outwardly frustrated, but secretly grateful. There weren't many constant things in life, but he was thankful that at least for now, Sora was one of those rare things that stayed so. No matter how many times _this _happened, how many times he crashed on his couch, how many times he used up his first aid kit, made self-admittedly stupid decisions, Sora hadn't bothered to kick him out.

Yet.

For the third time, Sora returned, this time with a pillow, blanket, and another ice pack, probably for his eye. "Will this be enough?" He asked, his frustrated voice a stark contrast to his words. "Do you think you'll need another blanket tonight?"

"No, this will be fine."

"Good. I grabbed the most uncomfortable blanket I could find, and this pillow smells like moth balls. Enjoy."

"Thanks."

Sora made a motion to throw the items at him, but thought better of it, then arranged them neatly on the couch, even taking care to throw the blanket over Riku's body.

"Don't die in the middle of the night. Wake me up if you need anything."

"I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. Go to bed. I've kept you up long enough."

"Of course you did," Sora huffed, jabbing his finger in his face. "You _always_ wake me up. You always pick the most inopportune times to get yourself in these messes, and then you expect me to wake up in the morning and be in a good mood about going to work. Some of us _sleep_ at night, Riku. Some of us like to _wake up_ in the morning without troublesome little miscreants like you always hogging their couches. Some of us like to sit on them and read the paper! Some of us—"

"I get it, I get it," Riku said trying his hardest (but failing) to hide the chuckle in his voice. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

"Ugh, you're even worse when you lie!" Sora threw his hands up and stormed off towards his bedroom. "Just stop talking and go to sleep."

"Yes Sora."

"Don't _'yes Sora'_ me. That's talking!" He stomped off in the direction of his room. Riku noticed that he didn't hear the door close.

He smiled despite himself as he settled into the itchy blanket and stiff pillows. The uncomfortable material was welcome.

This apartment was welcome.

Sleep was welcome.

* * *

The next morning, Riku awoke to too much light struggling to slip through his eyelids, and the faint smell of breakfast wafting off somewhere in the kitchen. He cracked open an eye and scanned the room to make sure he hadn't accidentally fallen asleep at the harbor again—or worse, fallen asleep _off_ the harbor—and let out an audible sigh of relief when he realized that he hadn't dreamed crashing Sora's house the night before. There was a chair beside him, what was left of a frozen bag of peas sliding off of his brow, and to his left in another adjacent chair was a stack of towels with a note on top.

He sat up and stretched, then abruptly stopped as the memory of his recently dislocated shoulder suddenly made itself very apparent. It would be another uncomfortable morning, he knew. He gingerly peeled the blanket off of his stiff legs and hissing joints.

If the brightness of the sun was any indication, he had slept well past Sora's morning exit, and if he remained at the apartment longer than necessary, he was afraid his fiery friend might just have his head on a silver platter. With that thought nestled in mind, he willed himself off of the couch and grabbed the stack of towels.

The bathroom was a few paces away and to the left, he remembered, the familiarity of the apartment a relief to his bruised muscles and tired bones. He had to remember though, that even though the trip was familiar, Sora's house was still like an elaborate maze of objects peppering the floor. There was a jacket and a pair of shoes just behind the couch, and in the doorway, a stack of papers. Sucking in a breath, he weaved his way around the obstructions and made it to the bathroom without tripping.

He tossed the towels onto the counter and turned on the water, stripped and waited for it to heat. As he did so, he reached for the note that had been hastily written and deposited atop the towels. He grinned as he scanned the text.

_Shower. You smell like the harbor and bad decisions. You had better not be here when I get back. When you go, remember to lock up in the morning. If someone breaks into my house to finish whatever it is you started, I am not kidding Riku, I will hunt you down and _end _you._

_ -Love Sora_

Riku's smile widened as he folded the note. It was more than mildly threatening, and he didn't want to test just how much patience Sora had left in the reserves. It would do him well to make sure his apartment stayed in the same order, he thought with a nod. He wasn't sure how Sora would even be able to tell the difference between an errant towel and the rest of the clutter, but he knew it would be better safe than sorry.

Careful of his fingers, he pushed his clothing into a pile as far away from any potential water splatters as possible. He still had to make it back home in that outfit, and since he was already fresh out of dignity with the blood and dirt stains, he was sort of desperate to keep from looking worse.

Then came the moment he was sort of dreading.

The water had reached a decent temperature, but he knew his cuts and scrapes would react violently to the introduction of new substances. The ice and tape had been bad enough, but going through the process of avoiding his injuries while still scrubbing himself clean was going to be an…_interesting_ venture to say the least.

As he thought, his skin did not like the hot water, and threw an absolute tantrum when it came into contact with the soap. He hissed into the steam, knowing that pain in this case was good for him, and if he backed out now from something as simple as a shower, he would never respectfully be able to enter another brawl down at the harbor.

To distract himself, he looked down at the impressive welts and bruises that bloomed across his shins, chest and arms. If it weren't on flesh, he would possibly confuse the patterns for an art project by a third grader.

A third grader who liked the color purple.

And to stab things.

And…was slightly sadistic.

He wrinkled his nose and finished washing, the soap bubbles curling around his taped up fingers and bleeding knuckles. At some point soon, he was going to have to pick a less self destructive lifestyle.

At some point, but probably _never._

Pleasant images of the festivities from the night before filled his head, and he actually reached up to was his hair with a grin on his face.

Riku knew that accepting a job down at the harbor would probably get him into trouble. To be fair, getting a job _anywhere_ outside of a padded cell with constant video surveillance—maybe— would get him into trouble. But he needed munny, and the job was easy.

He worked as a stocking man. All he had to do was load the boats with cargo that was being exported, or load the dock with imported cargo. He didn't even have to spend time figuring out where to put it. It was straightforward, and had few rules; as long as he showed up on time and never inquired as to the content of the boxes, he was paid quite handsomely with little to no hassle…in cash. The job had the added bonus of requiring little interaction with people, which meant no social skills were necessary, and if he worked the frequent late shifts, this lack of interaction only ripened. If was a simple job, a simple life, and he preferred it that way. He could afford a relatively decent place to call home, put food on his table, and, on occasion, replace his shirts and jeans when this simple life became _too_ simple.

Riku winced as he rubbed a tender spot on his arm with the clunky soap bar. Lifting heavy crates was going to be a very interesting venture that night, he could tell.

It wasn't that Riku was a particularly reckless person. In most cases, he was logical, even tempered, and down to earth. He liked the quiet. He liked sitting, and fishing, and sleeping, and other low-energy tasks. Maybe it was because he liked these things so much that he sometimes liked to shake things up just for his personal amusement.

Which is where the harbor came in.

He often worked at night, and as anyone around the islands knew, it was seedy at best during the _daytime._ This is why it was the perfect job. He was strong, capable, and was not often easily shaken. He also possessed a reliable set of muscles that could be successfully used to do more than open a jar of pickles. He often ran into some strange people. Some were garden variety gangsters, some were thieves. Some liked to do undercover exchanges at the harbor and brought along hardened criminals to keep their exchanges quick and easy. And then there were some people who just liked to start trouble.

Riku would be lying if he said that he didn't enjoy it when those particular people tried to bother him while he worked. He would also be lying if he said he didn't egg them on a little bit, make a few comments here and there that may have been slightly threatening; poke a nerve that encouraged them to throw a punch or two. Riku was many things, but he certainly was not a liar, which is why he was bruised, battered, and ready to repeat the process again the next night.

There was something about fighting that made him feel whole. It made him feel like he was on fire—in a good way—and that if he punched the other person hard enough, the little victory dance he did later would somehow make up for the black eye and busted lip. Sometimes the fights would be quick, sometimes they would drag on for a few hours. Sometimes the fights lasted the course of the week, and he would get a nervous, excited feeling every time he pulled on his boots to go to work the following days.

He knew he could have found somewhat less personally destructive outlets for his loose energy, but the harbor was readily available, and better still, _free._ He could take on fights, punch people for a few hours, make munny if he was still on the clock, and rest easy knowing that no one would ask questions. There was something about these informal brawls that brought out the best in him. They were refreshing and energizing, and…and…

Easy. He liked to fight people. It didn't take a lot of thought, and it was fun.

Sora had thought Riku had completely lost his mind, Riku remembered the day after his first fight on the harbor. His nose was broken, and Sora acted as though he had just been hit with a semi-truck and was still lying on the side of the road. He remembered the look on Sora's face when he saw the bruised appendage.

He remembered the look on Sora's face when he admitted that he kind of liked it.

It was like a trophy. He had won that fight alright; it was a small scuffle with a thin, wiry kid who thought that Riku had mixed up the boxes. Riku may have gotten out with a broken nose, but the kid had to hobble away by the time Riku was finished. He knew it was wrong, but he enjoyed winning, the adrenaline coursing through his veins, the raw feel of his knuckles against flesh. The small taste he had developed into something of an obsession very quickly, and the rest was history.

He picked the dirt out of his fingernails and finished cleaning himself up. He was thankful that the late shifts hid him from view of the public who by and large frowned upon people who looked like they just hopped out of a gang war movie, but that didn't mean that he wanted to look at himself in such a state either. He was a proud man after all. Even if he didn't actually come out of a fight unscathed, he was certainly going to look and act like it.

Shower finished, he stepped out, dressed back in his old clothes, and put Sora's bathroom back together as best he could, despite a few troublesome water puddles. He hoped with all his might that they would evaporate before Sora returned home. Sora's fury was unmatched when it came to his direct orders, provided of course he even noticed.

He decided that before he headed home he might as well rummage about and see if there was anything left from the scent of breakfast he had caught earlier. Sora wasn't the best cook, but anything was better than trudging back home on an empty stomach.

He rounded the corner from the bathroom and wandered into the kitchen.

Riku wrinkled his nose and considered retracting his thought that _anything _would be better than heading home hungry. There were dirty plates in the sink and stacks of paper all over the dining room table. If he didn't know better, he'd say that there was about a month's worth of newspapers just sitting there on the floor, but he _did_ know better and was confident Sora hadn't started reading about the world on any regular basis. A closer observation concluded that they were probably about four months worth of comic sections neatly _extracted _from the paper. The counter wasn't much better since it seemed to be cluttered with random toys Sora had collected from somewhere; even the cookie jar was filled with them.

It had just occurred to him that maybe, just maybe he didn't want to eat in the kitchen at all, but then he noticed a bright orange sticky note on the microwave.

Sora had taken care to write down explicit instructions not to mess up anything in the kitchen, and if there was so much as a spoon out of place, Riku would have to pay for it for the rest of his life as part of his punishment. There was something written about even cataloging fingerprints and scuff marks on the floor, too. He had even scribbled an angry face onto the letter to punctuate how serious he was, and beneath that at the very, very bottom was a brief message about there being food in the microwave.

Riku rolled his eyes. Sora probably wouldn't even be able to tell if he decided to start a bear wrestling club while he was gone, so he highly doubted a misplaced spoon would be noticed. He decided that he might just go ahead and do the opposite: clean out the sink to both demonstrate his appreciation for the hospitality and his rebellious side.

He turned on the water and filled the sink with soap, hoping that the outpouring water wouldn't be some putrid color, and simultaneously fished around in the microwave. Sora had done his best with toast and orange juice, but even the bread looked sad, as its back was dark, and its front was soggy with cold butter. Riku was grateful though, so he ate the toast in two bites and drained the orange juice in just as many seconds. He would have to make up the hospitality to Sora at some point in the near future. Maybe he would come over and cook him some _real_ food. He owed Sora a lot these days, it seemed. His tab was getting longer and longer.

He washed out the glass, and let the plates soak for a bit before wiping them down and putting them on the drying rack. Brushing away his own crumbs, he decided that it was time to make his leave. He would need to go home, change, sleep some more, and hopefully get himself in better shape in order to make it through the night's shift. If he knew anything about the way things worked at the ship yard—and he knew _everything_ about how things worked at the ship yard—it was going to be a long, arduous process loading the boats, and even more of a pain since he knew that somewhere, someone was probably waiting for part two of the fight.

.

* * *

*Worthy of note, the use of "Munny" over "money" was intentional, as this is the spelling of the currency within the Kingdom Hearts Universe. Just thought I'd clear that up for those who are not familiar with the fandom. Chapter 2 will be up shortly. Please remember to share your thoughts!


	2. The Harbor

**Warnings: **There's a bit of violence at the end, but nothing nightmare fuel worthy.

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**Chapter 2: The Harbor**

* * *

"Eh, you in a bad mood today, Sora?"

"No, why?"

"Because you've been scrubbing at that spot on the table for nearly ten minutes, and the varnish is starting to come off."

"Also, your face kind of gives you away."

Sora stared down at his hand, clutched in which was a soapy rag. He had indeed been scrubbing the table for quite a while—he could feel it now in his bicep—and maybe a little bit of the varnish was starting to come off. "Oh."

Quickly, he cleared his throat and removed his hand from the table to start on another one. "I'm not in a bad mood."

Kairi and Roxas, who had addressed him, wore similar expressions of disbelief, and narrowed their eyes as he wandered off to another table to offend.

"No way," Kairi interjected, grabbing him by the shoulders and steering him towards the garbage cans. "Take out the trash. I refuse to have Cid take munny out of all of our paychecks because you channel your anger into furniture."

"I told you, I'm not in a bad—"

"Save it for someone who doesn't know you. You're so ridiculously transparent it's sad." Roxas replied, taking the rag away from him. "Come on, the trash doesn't take itself out. When you come back in, you can spill your guts."

Sora grimaced and huffed over to the trash cans, looking over his shoulder briefly with the hope of meeting the eyes of Kairi or Roxas. "I'm _not_ in a bad mood," he said weakly, but no one caught the quiet statement, not the customers sitting at their tables, not Kairi, not Roxas.

"Fine," he muttered, gripping the monogrammed vessel, replacing the plastic before taking the load outside. Maybe he was just a touch on the anxious side that morning, but he didn't think it was bad enough that it showed, or worse, affected his work performance. If anything, it should have fueled him to work harder, and neither Kairi nor Roxas could complain if he was simply being more effective. He did have a self admittedly bad poker face though, so he supposed it shouldn't have been a surprise that his friends had picked up on it.

He headed outside to the dumpster and felt the cool morning breeze on his face. It smelled sweet and bitter outside, the rich and dark scent of coffee permeating the air. It was for this and many reasons he was glad that he worked at a coffee shop, _The Filter,_ and not at one of the local diners many of the other people with his same ability set ended up. The air behind the building always smelled pleasant.

Sora took a few deep breaths to calm himself, and told himself that he needed to get his act together if he was going to do his job correctly, furthermore if he wanted to keep Kairi, Roxas, and more importantly Cid off his back. The last thing he needed was to be sent home early for a poor attitude, and then he would have even _more_ to add to his long—and growing—list of complaints about Riku.

With another breath for good measure, he headed back into _The Filter_ and tried to plaster some semblance of neutrality on his face. It wasn't that he didn't mind voicing his frustration—this time regarding a certain silver-haired house crasher—but he preferred not to do it at work, furthermore at the cost of Roxas and Kairi succeeding at cracking him.

The two in question were behind the counter: Kairi counting pastries, Roxas playing with a stack of receipts. He peered behind his shoulder and grinned in a way that kind of made Sora sick to his stomach, and waggled his eyebrows.

"Welcome back. Feel better?"

"What? No."

"Perfect. Then that means there's still a good story waiting to be told."

Sora rolled his eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, we've got a full house. We don't have time for you to pry into my personal life."

Roxas shrugged. "Look over there," he pointed to the back of the store. "Those groups of people are so engrossed in their morning paper, they wouldn't notice if the building caught on fire, much less one of us neglecting to refill their cups of coffee." He pointed to another pod of people closer to the counter. "These three people are cramming for a class, and those people in the back are on their laptops. The place is practically running itself."

Kairi looked up from the glass display case. "Scones and cookies are all accounted for. There's officially nothing for us to do." She leaned across the counter. "Who wronged you today?"

"What makes you think I was wronged in some way?" Sora crossed his arms, looking moderately offended. "Why can't I just be in a bad mood?"

"Because you're Sora." They said in unison, and it was at this point that Sora realized that he had lost. He sighed.

"Come on, we're your friends," Kairi said with a small smile on her face. "We tease, but we really want to help you."

"Speak for yourself," Roxas grinned. "I just like a good story, preferably with the potential for violence."

"Right, well, with the exclusion of Roxas."

"It's not really a big deal. It's not even worth talking about—"

"If that's the case, then you can go ahead and stop stalling and tell us already." Roxas looked at him pointedly. "We have a limited amount of time before Cid shows up, and I refuse to get in trouble without a good story to show for it."

Kairi looked at Roxas with scorn, but smiled weakly at Sora. "Well, it might be good for you?"

"Ugh, fine." He joined them behind the counter, and shook his head. "Like I said, it's not really that big of a deal. Riku's just making me mad again."

Roxas looked personally offended. "Riku? Are you serious? He's always makes _everyone_ mad. This isn't news, this is life!"

"Eh, maybe _mad_ isn't the right word."

"Well what _is_ the right word?"

"I don't know!" Sora groaned. "Last night he crashed at my house at an unreasonable hour, because yet again, he just _had_ to prove he was a tough guy down at the harbor. Do you know how many frozen foods I have left? Do you have _any _idea?"

"…Not many?"

"That's right, _not many_. What kind of idiot goes off, gets into a brawl, and then drags himself into _my_ apartment, and expects me to patch him up?"

"…Riku?"

"That's right, _Riku._"

"Well, to be fair," Roxas pointed out. "You did open your door. If you were that mad about what sounds like an awesome night, then you'd have gone back to sleep. Then, the next morning when he's still on your doorstep, tell him that he'd better take you with him to the harbor next time, because it's not fair for one person to have so much fun by themselves."

"…What are you talking about?"

"You're worried," Kairi said warmly, making Roxas roll his eyes. "Is that what you mean?"

"Please, Kairi." Roxas said matter-of-fact. "Men do not _worry._ We have two emotions: anger and rage. We are never happy, we are never sad, we are only less angry." Roxas looked at Sora. "Are you going to punch him?"

"No, I'm not going to punch him. Kairi's right…sort of."

She grinned. "What's he up to now? Still fighting down at the harbor?"

"Of course he is," Roxas interjected. "He gets to hang out down at the docks, lift a couple of boxes, sit around for a few hours, and pick fights with people for fun, and he _still_ makes more munny than us. I would understand if you were a little jealous."

"No one mentioned anyone being jealous, Roxas."

"Oh really? My mistake."

"Anyway," Kairi continued. "What did he do to you?"

"Nothing really. At least, nothing out of the ordinary. It just frustrates me that he continues getting into trouble. One of these days it's going to come back tenfold, and he won't be able to get out of it by punching people."

"That's where you're wrong," Roxas said before Kairi could interject. "There are actually very few conflicts in this world that _can't_ be solved with a few punches to the jaw. Someone stole your property? Punch them in the teeth. Someone late to pick you up? Knock them in the chin. More complex problems like the world peace might require a good slug in the stomach, but you get the theme I'm going with here."

Kairi groaned. "You can stop now. Somehow you don't strike me as a credible source for conflict resolution."

"I'm serious! There's no need to complicate things with words and feelings and stuff. A fist to the face is pretty hard to misinterpret. It says 'stop being an idiot' much more precisely than any words could ever do."

"Okay, you're done.

"What? Am I wrong?"

"Guys, it's okay." Sora said with a sigh, already regretting bringing up the subject. The last thing he needed was Kairi and Roxas arguing over something he didn't want to talk about in the first place. Sure, he knew that Riku often did things that were probably contrary to what should be considered appropriate, self-constructive behavior, but he wasn't _evil_ person, and probably hadn't earned himself the need to be slugged other than from the actual brawls down at the harbor. He was a good person, and was an upstanding citizen for the most part, Sora supposed.

And as much as he hated to admit it, Roxas had also been right: no amount of talking or complaining would get him to stop. Riku was going to do whatever it was that he wanted to—especially if he was able to do so while making munny—and a punch to the face was probably the only way to get through to him that all of this fighting nonsense was just a bad idea.

Then again, Riku had been punched in the face numerous times—and Sora would know. He had a freezer void of frozen breakfast and snacks to prove it—and the actions only seemed to encourage him.

"I'm not going to worry about it anymore," he said finally, reaching for another soapy rag. "It's none of my business."

"Pfft, you're lying. Kairi and I both know you're going to worry about it until it stops, right Kairi?"

"That's not the point," Kairi said rubbing her eyes. "The point is that Sora is trying to be a good friend. Why don't you just tell him how you feel?"

"Don't do that. That'll make you look like a clingy girlfriend. Just punch him in the fa—"

"Will you cut it out? Sora, don't listen to Roxas. Just talk to him. Besides, it's not really a normal hobby anyway. Maybe there's something bothering him?"

Sora nodded. "I guess so."

Roxas just snorted. "This is a heck of a long time to be bothered about something. I told you, guys are simple creatures. We have an issue, we deal with it, and the most effective way to do so is to—"

"Roxas, I'm about to punch _you_ in the face. For the love of all things reasonable, please stop talking." Kairi sent him a glare that immediately halted any further vocal action.

"Eh, anyway," Sora coughed. "It's fine, really. I'm just going to move on and hope for the best."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, let's get back to work." He turned, but immediately regretted the decision. The back door from the kitchen opened, and he was greeted with a shock of blond hair, a frown, and a toothpick bobbing between a pair of lips turned distinctly downward.

Roxas slapped his hand to his forehead, and Kairi looked as though her heart may have stopped for a moment.

"What are you three doing?" Cid grunted, arms akimbo and back arched. "The answer had better be 'working,' or it looks like I'm going to have three positions open."

"We were just about to start sanitizing the counter after we restocked the pastries," Kairi said with a nervous smile.

"Yeah," Roxas chimed in. "All the scones and whatever are eh, scone-like, so…yeah. Sanitizing."

Cid didn't look pleased. "That's how I know you're lying. Roxas, you're never anywhere near the counter unless you're flapping your lips or hiding from the customers."

"We're sorry, Cid." Sora blurted out.

"I don't want to hear your apologies. Just get to work. Crazy little varmints…"

"Yes sir!"

Roxas sent both Sora and Kairi a sheepish grin before heading off to find a dust pan and broom, while Kairi and Sora reached for their soapy rags. Sora himself was still reeling from the possibility of getting fired—though all three of them knew Cid was too lazy to go through the trouble of hiring and training three more staff members—but was silently glad. The conversation had ended, and at least he could force himself to think about working instead of how angry Riku made him, or how his poor decisions these days were just going to land him in a heap of trouble that Sora wasn't sure he would have the patience to bail him out of.

Kairi elbowed him gently as she wiped a section of the counter, and smiled. "Don't listen to Roxas," she whispered. "Just talk to him."

"Huh? Oh. Right."

"I mean it."

"Yes Kairi."

"Hey, stop talking over there," Roxas hissed from across the room. "I still need this job!"

* * *

The sun had just disappeared behind the horizon, Riku noticed as he pulled on his boots, mindful of his fingers, and laced them up tightly. Tonight, like all nights during the week, would yield unexpected surprises locked up in the crates. The last time that he had gone out wearing less durable shoes, he ended up walking home with soggy feet, and shoes that smelled a lot like something one would find at the waste site of a chemical plant. He pulled the legs of his jeans over his boots, and shoved a pair of equally durable gloves in his back pocket.

Riku was pleased this evening. After having rested so well at Sora's apartment that morning, furthermore getting breakfast out of the deal, he felt he would be able to take on a reasonable amount of work this shift. If that weren't enough, he spent the day at his own house replenishing his sleep, taking time to scrub some of the stains out of his work clothes, and sleeping even more. He wasn't an especially lazy person, and rather enjoyed having more productive days, but sometimes he couldn't resist doing close to nothing.

Refreshed, and ready to get to work, he checked his pockets one more time to make sure he had brought _both_ gloves, then he headed out the door and locked it tightly behind him.

A ritual he engaged in prior to leaving was a quick survey around the outside of his house. He wasn't scared exactly, but given his frequent skirmishes down at the harbor, it wouldn't be unlikely to anticipate someone being impatient enough to start _confrontation_ outside of the sanctity of the ships. It had yet to happen, but one could never be too careful.

Peeking around the corners of his apartment, and the stairwell below him, he found nothing, and more importantly _no one_. Satisfied, he jogged down the stairs and onto the street.

As he headed down the street toward the harbor, he could smell the saltiness of the sea. The air was cool and fresh, the night was still, and silent. It was perfect. He was even pleased to find that he wasn't even sore. Well, maybe his fingers were, and there was a bit of residual pain in his shoulder, but otherwise he was as fit as could be. He would have to hand it to whoever crafted Sora's couch, Riku's own bed, and all the other surfaces he had crashed onto that day. He supposed he could get by without actually having to thank the furniture, but Sora would be a different problem.

He grimaced, as he remembered the debt he was accruing. If he knew Sora well—and he _did—_news of his unexpected house crashing had probably already made it to Kairi and Roxas, and probably a handful of other people. Sora had a very entertaining way of handling his anger, and it usually involved a lot of talking. Luckily he was easy enough to assuage.

Silently thankful of this, he supposed he would call Sora up the following afternoon grovel out some kind of apology, buy him food, and then hope that he wouldn't have to end up at his house again for at least another couple of weeks. He hoped that would be enough this time…

Rounding a corner, he was greeted with a more intense scent of the sea, and the unpleasant odor of chum.

He had reached the harbor.

It was dark out, but there were a few lights peppered around the docks to prevent unfortunate accidents—e.g. handlers like himself falling into the ocean, and cheap managers having to pay exuberant amounts of munny to cover it up. The lights had the unwanted side effect of garnering the attention of half a million moths, mosquitoes and other flying nuisances. In conjunction with the rotting fish innards clinging to the sides of some of the boats, he was left a somewhat unpleasant host of guests during the evening hauls.

Riku didn't mind, though. He liked all of it; the smell, the silence, the tightness in his muscles after a rough haul, and the promise of a little action before the night was over. It was worth the bugs, and it was worth the smell.

He pulled on his gloves and waved to a few of his "coworkers" as well as his manager hanging off on the other side, face deep in the newspaper, before heading to his section of the harbor.

The boats that came in during this time of the night were usually small, and could be handled without much help outside of Riku himself and the boat's own crew members. These visits were designed to be quick, discreet, and hassle free. Daytime shifts required more interaction with crew members, customers wandering about the harbor determined to get the _freshest_ of the fresh fish coming in, and little children scampering around with balloons and toys as they wandered around without their parents. Riku would take the bugs and dubious atmosphere over that nonsense any day.

Wrinkling his nose he peered out into the open sea, hunting for a light, a sound, anything to indicate an incoming vessel. On cue, a boat rolled in on a bed of dark waves and thick evening fog. Almost before it was even close enough, a rope was thrown in his direction. Catching it before it smacked him in the face, he set to securing it to the dock, then waited for the others to follow.

The boat stopped a few inches from the dock, and four men silently filed out, helping to secure ropes and the slabs of wood used to slide the boxes out of the ship. It wasn't well decorated process, but it was efficient. Before Riku had even secured the other ropes down, the men were already pushing the cargo to the edge of the ramp and sliding it down.

He shuffled to the box as it neared the end of the incline and loaded it onto a nearby packing dolly. He had no idea what was inside. All he knew was that it was heavy, and smelled like something had died in it. He let a breath out from his mouth and continued. He wasn't paid to ask questions.

The next few boxes slid down the ramp in a similar fashion, and he stacked them on the dolly. As it filled, a new one replaced it by someone behind him, and the process continued again. The boxes began to vary in scent and weight. Riku wrinkled his nose at the appropriate times, but continued with loading as if the weight of the boxes was nonexistent, and the contents were dozens of rose petals.

The boat was quickly unloaded, and as soon as the ramp had cleared, Riku found himself with a new dolly parked next to him, this time with boxes marked for export. He rubbed his hands together to get the feeling back into his fingers—then decided that he preferred it when he couldn't feel them—and proceeded to go through the process in reverse.

From the rare times he bothered to be curious as to the contents of the crates, he found everything from animal parts, to clothing, to metal mechanical parts he could only assume went to some kind of automotives. This time the contents were a bit more ambiguous, but he could tell that they were the latter automotive pieces. He wondered what kind of company dealt with things that were both metal and clearly once living, but he decided against letting his mind wander too far. Those who were too curious always ended up in trouble.

The export lasted about as long as he expected, and after a few hours of heavy lifting and sweating, the small boat was released from the dock and was speeding off into the inky blackness of the sea.

Riku wiped his forehead with the back of his still gloved hand, his hair matting to the back of his neck and forehead. He decided he was in need of a small break before the next ship came in. Looking around for a crate that wasn't marked for export or import, he wandered through one of the smaller storage ware houses and was happy to find an overturned box of…something, and sat down on it to rest up.

It was quiet inside; grease and saltiness permeated the air. It was a pleasant relief from the flying moths and dock slathered in fish chum, but then again areas that were as quiet as this were often riddled with things more troublesome than how the appeared.

He leaned back onto another crate and closed his eyes, alone, quiet, and content. His muscles were starting to sing sweetly of exertion and overuse, but he liked the feeling. Here he didn't have to think, didn't have to _be._ He could forget the problems of home, the world, and anything else that so cared to keep him from being completely and utterly at ease.

And then, as soon as he settled into perfect mental blankness, he heard the first sound of that trouble that _always_ seemed to follow him whenever he took a break in the warehouse.

"Hey, that's that kid."

Riku overheard his obvious mention from somewhere off in the back beyond his sight. Being the only individual who worked at the harbor under the age of thirty five was both helpful and unfortunate for a variety of reasons, but in this case he was pleased that he would at least have the opportunity to be forewarned if anything should come of this conversation. He tilted his head back and leaned against the crate behind him, listening in carefully and trying his hardest to avoid detection.

"What are you talking about?"

"That kid, from a couple of days ago. The one who gave me that shiner then walked away like he owed it to me, y'know?"

Riku was pretty sure he could guess where this was going to go after that last line. He flexed his fingers. It was painful, but he was confident he might be able to do a little bit of damage, even if his fingers did protest. He had plenty of ice at home, and his couch proved to be really good with getting the kinks out of his back…

"I really have no idea what you're talking about."

"It's that kid, I'm not even making this up." There was a rustling of some clothing, and then footsteps.

Riku rolled his eyes. He was kind of hoping that it would be a little later when the festivities began, since he did have more ships to unload, and he didn't really fancy being bruised up while he worked, but he supposed some things couldn't be helped.

The footsteps neared, and Riku was now certain that he was going to be confronted. He kept at ease on the crate, and waited.

A built looking brunet man who stood a little taller than Riku, and his slightly thinner, blond companion stopped immediately in front of him, the buffer of the two standing with his hand on his hip and a scowl on his face. Riku supposed that this must have been the person he had apparently wronged at some point, though he had to admit that the faces of those people were starting to run together.

"You need something?" It was really more of a formality. Rarely did anyone approach anyone so abruptly in the warehouses unless they wanted a fight or munny, and given that Riku could really only provide the former at the current moment, his expectations for a peaceful discussion were pretty much nonexistent.

"Yeah I _need_ something, you little snot," The brunet said. "You remember me, kid?"

"Eh, can't say that I do."

"Listen to him, Seifer," he said to his blond friend, jabbing a thumb in Riku's direction a bit theatrically.

The man next to him rolled his eyes. "Is there some reason we're doing this? I have things to do, and the last thing we need is to—"

"I'm _aware_ of that. The issue is that this kid over here was the one who interrupted our transaction the last time and sent me home with a busted eye."

Riku had only a vague recollection of who this individual was, but given that he rarely started fights—_merely finished them—_he knew that any further listening would produce only a vague outline of the truth.

The blond man now identified as Seifer rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Fine. Let's rough him up a little bit and get on our way, if you're sure this is the guy." He looked up at Riku, a scar-lined eye looking impatient and disinterested. "Did you give Rai a shiner?"

Rai looked completely insulted and dumbfounded.

Riku shrugged. "I can honestly tell you I don't remember, but probably."

"That sounds fair."

"I hate you both, y'know?"

"Okay then." Seifer reached up to yank him off of the crate by his ankle, but Riku jumped down and landed a few feet away. Two people at once wasn't unheard of, but it was a rare treat. He only hoped that Rai had enough frustration built up, and that Seifer had enough fight in him to make all of this worthwhile.

Rai was the first to charge him, which was probably why he had ended up with the black eye in the first place. He yelled as he ran forward, as though closing the distance between them was some massive feat, but Riku side stepped and jabbed his elbow in the side of his face. Rai crashed off to the side and hit the floor.

Seifer shook his head and cracked his neck. "Huh, Rai was right. You _are _a little snot." He also charged forward, but with far less enthusiasm than Rai did and swung at his gut. Riku managed to maneuver himself around the fist, but another one came almost immediately afterward and clipped him in the jaw.

Both of them pulled apart, and Rai picked himself off of the floor.

He couldn't help the small smile that spread across his face. _This_ was going to be fun.

Rai charged him from behind, and Riku gladly let himself be pushed forward towards Seifer's waiting fists. As soon as Seifer swung though, he loosened himself from Rai's grip, and his fist connected with Rai's face instead. Seifer looked more inconvenienced than upset that he possibly caused his companion his second black eye, but the look was only brief as he was at it again.

Rai tried for Riku's jaw this time, but Riku grabbed his fist, wrapped it behind his back and shoved him forward. His face connected with concrete, and Riku couldn't stop himself from landing a kick or two to his ribcage to ensure that he would stay down, at least until he had a good start on Seifer.

Seifer appeared to be the better fighter, and for this, Riku was interested. Since Rai hadn't provided a particularly memorable fight, he was hopeful that Seifer would be able to, even though he appeared to be smaller and leaner. He wondered what their dynamic must be like…

Seifer swung, but Riku dodged and landed a punch to Seifer's stomach. He slid back a little winded, but the punch didn't seem to slow him down. He cracked his neck and swung a few times at Riku's face and abdomen, connecting a fist to Riku's side. There was a tiny flash of pain that quickly bloomed into a _large_ flash of pain, and Riku suspected that he may have cracked a rib.

The thought didn't bother him though, and the grin that spread across his face indicated why he enjoyed working at the harbor so much.

"Hey," Rai wheezed from the floor, clutching his own chest as he struggled to stand up. "Seifer just _broke_ your rib and you're _smiling? _What is _wrong_ with you?"

Riku chose to ignore him and charged Seifer, this time knocking Seifer in the jaw and once in the stomach. His head bobbed downward and a thin trickle of blood ran down his lip and stained his shirt.

This action seemed to produce the most emotion in Seifer, for his eyes flashed red, and he scowled in such a way that would have left him scared, had be not been anticipating this all night.

"I'll admit, I underestimated you when we started this, but no one _ever,_ _ever_ beats me in a fight, do you hear me kid?"

Riku struggled with this one, since he was pretty sure that Seifer and he were too close in age for him to be calling Riku _kid_ and Riku wasn't really in the business of losing fights either.

He told him as much.

Seifer got angry.

Seifer charged.

Riku was pleased.

As he ran forward, much like Rai had in the beginning, Riku already knew that he had won. Once anger became motivation for fighting, it was pretty easy to lose. Riku fought for the fun of it and just general boredom. Seifer was now fighting because Riku had bruised his ego…and his jaw. It was all lining up too perfectly.

As expected, Riku only had to land a few more punches for Seifer to fall, and Rai to come crawling over to him to help him. Riku himself was a little winded, and _maybe_ that cracked rib would become an issue later when the next shipment came in, but for the most part he was gleeful. It was a reasonably good fight, and he had proven to himself, and eventually that nag Sora that he was more than capable of handling himself.

Rai struggled to help Seifer to his feet, and he came to with a huff and a death glare. Riku didn't even try to hide his smugness.

"Let's get out of here," Rai whispered frantically. "This guy's crazy, y'know?"

"Shut up!" Seifer hissed back. He pointed at Riku. "This isn't over, do you hear me? I don't lose!"

"I'll go ahead and keep the obvious statement to myself, then."

"You!" he yelled. "You have no idea who you're dealing with, kid. You have no _idea!"_

"Are you going to tell me or…"

"Shut up!" Seifer bellowed, and Rai was having difficulty keeping him upright since he was fidgeting so much. "We work for one of the most powerful people known to man. You think you can just walk home after a little tussle in the harbor, but let me tell you, you'd better sleep with one eye open for the rest of your life, because—"

A horn blew in the distance, signaling the arrival of another ship. Riku couldn't be sure it was for him, but it wasn't worth waiting around for someone to come yelling for him and risk getting fired.

Or risk missing out on _this _for days to come_._

"Look, I appreciate your words. I really do, but I have to go. Revenge, powerful people, I get it." He offered a wave, and dashed off, his ribs and muscles protesting all the way.

Rai's expression was a combination of hurt and confusion, but Seifer wore an expression of pure rage.

"Eh, you okay Seifer? The kid's crazy, y'know?"

"Yeah, I know," he wheezed. "But he has no idea how _crazy_ crazy can get. I don't like his attitude. I'm going to make sure we wipe that smirk off his face."

"How are we going to do that?"

"We're going to start by _you_ shutting up, and _us_ getting back to what we were here doing in the first place."

"But Seifer—"

"What did I _just_ say?"

"Yes sir."

* * *

Please remember to submit feedback! Chapter 3 will be up shortly.


	3. Dinner at Delia's

**Chaper 3: Dinner at Delia's**

* * *

Sora sat with his arms folded and a scowl plastered across his face as he sat on his couch. It wasn't that anything was wrong exactly, but there were so many things that simply weren't _right _that he didn't even know what to do.

He had come home from work the day before and had hunted… _hunted _for something to be out of place, just so he could find a reason to call Riku up and yell at him. Unfortunately, everything had been put back into place just as it was before he left. The bathroom was actually clean and tidy—unlike how he had left it, but he couldn't complain—the kitchen was still in order as well, not that he really would have been able to tell if Riku had messed up anything. He couldn't help it if he had a thing for empty threats.

In fact, he had bothered to go and actually wash the dishes in the sink. Sora himself thought it was something a jerk would do, but he had been so surprised to actually see the bottom of the sink that he couldn't even get angry. It was a _nice_ surprise; an _appreciated_ surprise. This actually made him angrier now. He wished he had made a bigger deal about it at the time, and had called Riku while it was still fresh on his mind.

He grimaced. What kind of person was he becoming? Was he really sitting in his living room trying to find reasons—even stale ones—to yell at Riku?

The two of them—well, really, the four of them: Sora, Riku, Kairi and Roxas—had been friends for quite a while. They had grown up on the islands together, had gone to the same schools, had graduated together. It wasn't like they were strangers, or needed any kind of prompt to talk.

Kairi and Sora had been friends as long as he could care to think. He could faintly remember a time when Kairi was new to the island, but the gap in time between her arrival and their friendship had been so seamless that he could barely remember it. She was a likeable person, which made her easy to befriend, and since she was willing to put up with all of his wild childhood whims, he was pleased to have her friendship.

Roxas was admittedly hard to swallow at first. He had moved to town a few years after Sora and Kairi had started primary school, and seemed to be less than enthusiastic about the hot sun, the constant presence of sand, and the snowless winters. Kairi had befriended him because she was _Kairi, _but it wasn't long before his strange, biting charm sort of…forced itself on Sora, and they had been friends ever since.

Riku was different though. They had always been friends, and Sora was prone to think that they were two parts of the same person…if Riku hadn't been taller, older, stronger and stoic.

They had been neighbors, and as soon as they had first laid eyes on each other, it was as if they were going to cause trouble together forever. He'd never forget that day he had been sitting outside in the hot sun, whacking a tree with a stick out of sheer boredom, and Riku had descended his porch, silver mop of hair and pale skin defiant in Destiny Island's infamous summers, and he said with a voice that was too deep for his age, "I'm bored, too._"_

Riku kind of had a Roxas-eque edge to him, but less abrupt and biting. It sort of worked for his personality though, and created an aura about him that was a little bit mysterious, a little bit cool, and a little bit…_right_. That day they had ended up swimming in the ocean, destroying an entire section of shrubbery with sticks and magnifying glasses, and falling off of large rocks. It had been the best day Sora had ever had, and those days continued until…

Well, he wasn't sure what had happened. Sora sighed, and willed his mind to move on. He could blame it on Riku getting that job at the harbor, but he knew that there was something else there, something that Riku wouldn't tell him, and something that he wasn't sure he wanted to know. Whatever it was, it was building an unspoken barrier between himself and his best friend, bringing awkwardness to something as simple as talking to him about a tiny little nuisance that smelled a lot like the harbor…

He pulled himself from the cushions of his couch and milled around the kitchen to find something else to be angry about. Kairi had said that he might be slightly obsessive compulsive, but Roxas called him a professional 'fretter.' If there wasn't something wrong, then he often invented things to be wrong just so he could worry about them. It was for this reason that he was grateful for his friendships. He usually relied on Riku to help mellow him out, but since Riku was bent on being the perpetual thorn in his side, that was kind of out of the question.

Sora frowned and looked around the apartment again. Though he probably could have made a fuss about Riku insulting his housecleaning habits by touching his things, but that was admittedly splitting hairs.

If Riku hadn't been his friend, he might have killed him by now for putting all this worry on him…

There was a shrill beep from the sound of his phone in the other room, and when Sora dashed to get it and read the name on the caller ID, he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. It looked as if he was about to be granted a reason to release all of his frustration on the individual causing all of this trouble in the first place.

He took a moment to clear his throat, and really _savor_ the verbal beating he was about to bestow before clicking the answer button and placing it to his year.

"Hello," he said sweetly, drawing out the vowels to lull Riku into a false sense of security.

The reply was cautious, as it should have been. "Uh, hello? Sora?"

"Why yes, this is Sora." He said, pouring on more sweetness. "And who may I ask is calling?"

"Huh? It's Riku. Did you delete my num—"

"Surely it wouldn't be Riku, house crasher and destroyer of frozen foods everywhere."

"…Oh."

"Surely that Riku wouldn't have the nerve to call me after causing me an unspeakable inconvenience, forcing me out of my peaceful slumber, and into an impromptu nursing internship. Surely that person wouldn't be calling me!"

"Eh heh…right, sorry about all that. Maybe I'll call back later."

"Oh no! I couldn't ask you to do that. That would be _inconsiderate._ Tell me, Riku, what kind of favor have you called for this evening? Perhaps there's some corn you'd like to destroy? Maybe you have your eyes on my steak?"

Riku hiccupped into the phone, but Sora could tell he was using it to hide a laugh. "No, nothing like that. I apologize for last night. I'll try to be more considerate of you in the future."

"You're lying, but apology accepted." He sat down on the couch and let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure why he was relieved, possibly because he was glad that Riku had made it through another night at the fighting ring he called the harbor, and he didn't sound like he was in need of any immediate medical care. "What do you want, you free loader?"

"Well, the apology is why I called, well, that and to make it up to you."

"Oh really, and how are you going to do that?"

"Dinner on me?"

Sora stifled a scowl. Was he so easily bought off like with dinner, like some kind of cheap date? They were friends. He was going to have to try a lot harder than that. "Fine, I'll eat dinner, but _I_ get to pick where we go."

"That's fine with me. Do you work today?"

"No. I'm pretty sure Cid is looking for an excuse to fire me."

"There's always an opening down at the harbor."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, and I'll see you here in twenty minutes with a lot of Munny. I'm hungry, and I've decided that all of the frozen food you've cost me is going to come back and bite you in the wallet."

Riku laughed into the receiver again and offered a simple affirmation before closing the line.

Sora let out another sigh of relief and flopped onto his couch. He felt relieved, but he knew that it would only last a little while longer. It would only be a few more hours before Riku went back to the harbor for the night, and he would have to keep his fingers crossed that he would appear on his doorstep at an unreasonable hour, or see him at some other point during the day to ensure that he made it out with all of his body parts.

He wrinkled his nose and decided that he was going to give Riku an especially hard time about all of this after all, and waited patiently for his doorbell to ring.

Sora sat in the same spot for twenty minutes, and made sure that he let Riku know it, too. As soon as the doorbell rang he made a show of getting off the couch, as though Riku had taken much longer than the allotted time and was being a further burden on his patience.

Sora opened the door and looked over him. There was something slightly off about his posture, but he chose to ignore it for now. He stared at Riku pointedly, eyes hooded and hand on his hip. "It's about time you got here. I thought I was going to have to eat my arm off."

"What are you talking about? I'm on time."

"Sure you are. Sure you are."

"Anyway," Riku said rolling his eyes. "Are you ready to go, Princess Sora, or do you need a minute to put on your makeup?"

"Pfft, you're the one who needs makeup, not me." He shoved on his shoes and closed the door behind him. "And don't think that I'm going to go easy on your paycheck just because I've forgiven you. I meant it when I said that I was hungry, and that I was going to make you suffer."

"I believed you, so I brought plenty of Munny. As long as you don't decide to fly to another country to eat, I think I can support even your ravenous appetite."

"If you think so."

"I do." The two stepped out onto the porch, but Sora tapped his foot impatiently. "Well?"

"Well _what_?"

"Don't tell me you walked here. Where is your car? I want to eat across town."

Riku rolled his eyes again. "If I knew you were going to be this fussy I would have brought a corsage and a box of chocolates."

"That wouldn't have hurt your case."

"I parked in the back. Come on."

Sora planted a smug smile on his face, and shoved his hands in his pockets. At least he was succeeding so far, and if he could get to a restaurant and burn a sizeable hole in Riku's wallet, maybe, just maybe Riku would think twice about being so reckless.

"Do you want me to open the door for you, or can you take care of that yourself?"

"I'll spare you." Sora said with a light laugh, then threw himself in the passenger's side of Riku's compact car. It was nice, and it made Sora just the tiniest bit jealous of his Munny reserves. Sora himself had only managed to land a job at a café and could just afford rent. It seemed as though Riku could afford rent _and_ gas. He snorted.

"So, where am I taking you?"

"Across town please. Remember that diner we used to go to when we were kids?"

"We ate at a lot of bizarre places, Sora…including the ocean."

"That one that Tidus got kicked out of because he bet all of us he could fling all of his grapes into that lady's hat."

"Oh. Good choice." He grinned, drove off, the car speeding down the road in the quiet afternoon.

Sora sighed lightly and leaned his head against the door frame and the window. He was fine now, but he couldn't help but feel the slightest bit awkward. He and Riku were still friends as far as he was concerned, and he was pretty sure that Riku considered him a friend as well, but there was something that had changed between the two of them, and he didn't like it. He frowned and turned to him, hoping that something would come to mind to bring up. Then he spotted the dark purple bruise that had formed on the underside of Riku's jaw. He didn't remember icing _that_ the other night, which would have to mean that it was a recent injury. He rolled his eyes and turned back to the window, suddenly irritated. If he tried to start a conversation now, he didn't know if he would be able to keep himself from nagging.

Riku started to notice the silence that filled the car, and he lifted a curious eyebrow.

"What?"

Well, it wouldn't be his fault anymore if he was prompted, Sora supposed.

"_What_ what?" Sora responded.

"'Why are you being so quiet' _what?._"

"I'm not being quiet. I'm just thinking, that's all."

"Sounds dangerous. You aren't really the quiet type."

"Hmph, you wouldn't know what kind of type I am anymore, now would you?"

Riku broke his sight on the road for a half a second to send Sora a curious look. "Wow, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing. Just that you only bother to come see me after you break yourself in half."

Riku made a show of sighing, and shook his head. "Are you seriously still mad about that?"

"Truthfully, no. I just like to make you uncomfortable. On a serious note, yes. I just think you could be doing better things with your time than—"

"Yeah, yeah," Riku interrupted, turning the corner a little sharply. "'Using up my frozen vegetables and space on the couch.' I get it, I'll be more conscientious of your time."

Sora folded his arms and pouted. "I'm not talking about _that. _Did it ever occur to you that all of this is a bad idea?"

"It occurred to me, yes."

"And that means nothing?"

"Pretty much."

He chuckled, but it was humorless, and Sora caught it. Riku was getting a bit tired of the questioning. He knew that if he kept pressuring the issue that Riku might just pull away from him for good, and that little invisible wall between them would turn into a giant chasm of no return. He chose to swallow the rest of his questioning, and nagging to be inserted into conversations later, and chose to close the subject. He let out a long breath of air and turned to Riku, even though he knew he would only be able to see him from his peripheral vision.

"Just tell me you'll be more careful?"

"Sure."

"I'd make you pinky-promise me, but your finger is broken."

Riku snorted and turned the corner intentionally hard, forcing Sora into the side of the car. "Shut it."

The rest of the car trip was filled with idle chatter, Sora trying his hardest to keep from bringing up the obvious, and Riku offering bits of commentary. Sora was pleased that they had been able to talk freely for now; it was better than the alternative.

Riku pulled into the drive way of the diner. The building was well-lit and colorful. Neon lights bordered the entire building; pink and red streaks that were inherent methods of advertisement. Bars of black and white checkerboard lined the walls, and the windows were lined in bright blue. In front of it all was a tall neon sign offering a corny slogan and the diner's specials. If Sora didn't know any better, he might argue that he would be able to see the sign from space.

"We're here," Riku said with a grin as he unlocked Sora's door. "I hope you're hungry."

"You have no idea." He smiled back and removed himself from the car, shaking his legs and arms.

Upon entering, they were greeted with a cheery hostess wearing a light blue skirt and blouse, and an apron that covered most of her body. She tugged at her garments and adjusted her nametag—'Yuffie' was stamped onto it with gold letters—and fixed her face with the widest grin Sora had ever seen in his life. She looked uncomfortable in the obvious costume, but was none the less eager when she saw their faces, mainly because she wouldn't have to lean against the podium waiting for more customers to come in. She moved a hand through her short dark hair and waved them inside.

"Welcome, welcome!" She said, spreading her arms wide and making a show of bowing. "Welcome to Delia's Diner, where the eggs are cooked to order, and no one knows who Delia is!"

Riku chuckled nervously, partly because he wasn't sure what the wiry girl was capable of, and thanked her. "Uh, we're just going to go grab a seat."

"Of course, of course!" She said with a giggle, whipping out two menus, and a set of knives and forks. "Sit anywhere you like. We don't have a full house, and our wait staff works entirely on an honor system."

"Heh, right."

Sora selected a booth as far away from her stand at the front as possible, and propped open his menu. He peered at Riku over it, whispered, "She's scary."

"I agree."

Sora went back to his menu and fretted over possible menu items, though all of them seemed like they would be swimming in grease and horridly overpriced—probably to pay for the gimmicky signs out front and the costumed wait staff—but he reminded himself that he was treating himself today.

On Riku's Munny.

He grinned and glanced at the menu. It took all of three seconds for him to realize that he didn't really need to look. This was going to be a completely _customized_ order. He put his menu down and looking expectantly at Riku.

Riku felt the gaze on him and slowly lowered his menu. "What?"

"Nothing," he said innocently.

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to eat my way into poverty?"

"You shouldn't feel that way Riku. You should _know_ it." He cackled a bit to prove his point and beat his fist against his chest. "My revenge knows no bounds."

"I can see that."

A few moments later, a woman dressed in the same garb as their enthusiastic hostess appeared holding a ticket book and a pen walked over to their table. She smiled down at them, thankfully a lot less electric than Yuffie.

"My name is Tifa, and I'll be your waitress this evening. Anything I can get you boys to drink?"

"Coffee," Riku said simply.

Sora cracked his knuckles. "Hi Tifa. I noticed that on your menu, you offer strawberry and chocolate shakes. Is it possible to combine the two?"

Riku slapped his hand to his face.

Tifa smiled. "Absolutely, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay the price for both of them."

"Munny isn't a problem, ma'am." He grinned at Riku who scowled in return. "In that case, I'll have a strawberry chocolate shake with extra whipped cream and sprinkles. Then I'll have a coffee."

She looked a bit confused but nodded and marked the order down on her ticket book. "Okay, I'll be right back with that."

Riku leaned back in the booth and groaned. "I should have known you were going to make this as difficult as possible."

"Yeah, you really should have." He smiled.

More idle chatter resumed as they waited for Tifa to return, and Sora found himself missing this. He wasn't kidding when he mentioned that the only time he saw Riku anymore was because of the aftermath of some fight that had been tougher than expected, or the occasional chance meeting in town. It wasn't easy since he worked day shifts and Riku worked nights, but he supposed both of them could have tried a little harder to make contact with each other. He looked at this owed dinner as a rare moment to get back to the way things used to be, and maybe, just maybe a glimmer of hope for what the future could bring.

Riku also found himself glad that he was able to see Sora, though he couldn't help but feel a little anxious about returning to the harbor later that evening. He was starting to feel restless again, and the fight that Seifer had promised him the night before seemed a tantalizing. He tried to force himself to focus though. He was here with Sora, a rare moment when he didn't need something, and even if Sora was eating off of his Munny, he still felt guilty for owing it to him in the first place. He was starting to become what he would consider a bad friend these days…

He shook his head to rid himself of his thoughts and grinned at a comment Sora made on the state of things at his apartment, and Riku remarked that he might just want to start messing things up just to give himself a little variety in life. Sora shook his head violently, and waved him away, so frantically that he nearly knocked into Tifa as she brought their beverages to the table.

"Two cups of coffee and a chocolate-strawberry shake." She said, setting the mugs and glass down. "Did you have a chance to look at the menu? Anything look good?"

"Yeah," Riku said "Cheeseburger, no onions, please."

Sora cracked his knuckles again and made sure he made eye contact with Riku. "Yes, as a matter of fact I have." He waited for Riku's face to meet his hand again, then plastered on a smug grin before continuing. "To start with, I really like that country steak and eggs. Does that come with pancakes? Because even if they do, I'd like to have an extra order of them. Now, I've also noticed a ham steak that you have here on this fine menu. I'd like to get one of those with another order of eggs, and gravy—sausage gravy. I realize that it's a whole seventy-five Munny charge onto that, but as I said earlier, that isn't really a factor in my overall purchase. Now, let's talk potatoes…"

By the end of Sora's order, Riku was rolling his head on the table in sorrow, half laughing, half sobbing at the ridiculousness and creativity in which Sora was stringing together menu items. He wasn't even sure the restaurant even served red-eye gravy, and there might be a special place in the record books for the amount of toppings Sora had included on his french-fries. Even Tifa looked as though she might have been breaking a sweat.

"And finally," Sora concluded resting his hands behind his head. "I'll have an order of your cheesecake. What's that? There are three different types? Well, it looks as though I'm going to have to try all of them."

Tifa nodded into her receipt book, recounting menu items to make sure she had collected all of them correctly. "Eh, will that be all gentlemen?"

Sora looked skyward in mock thought. "Well now that you mention it—"

"We're done," Riku moaned into the table. "I think your cooks will be plenty busy with all of that."

"Okay," she said with a nervous laugh. "It may take a few minutes, but I'll have the food out for you as soon as I can."

"Sounds good." Sora smiled sweetly at Riku. "What, can't afford me?"

"Oh I can afford it. I just won't be able to eat until next week."

"Don't worry, _I'll_ be able to eat quite well for the next few days."

"Glad I could help you out."

"Good." He sat with a smug grin on his face for a few more moments so that Riku could really, truly appreciate it, then folded his hands neatly in front of him and kicked him under the table.

Riku grinned. "So, what's been going on with you? How's life at that coffee shop you work at? Roxas driving you to homicidal whims yet?"

Sora cracked a smile as well. "Not yet. It's not bad. Just as you'd expect."

"Huh, you mentioned earlier you thought Cid was trying to fire you. Finally get fed up with a customer and dump coffee in their lap?"

"Hah, I wish. The most exciting thing that's happened these days was getting a new espresso machine, since Cid's usually too cheap to buy anything new. It's sad that these are the highlights of my life. I just got yelled at for having story time behind the counter."

Riku lifted an eyebrow in interest, and a flash of instant alarm rose in Sora. It would probably have been better if Riku _didn't _find out the subject of their discussion, so he quickly waved it off. "Nothing to tell, really. We just…eh…discussed Roxas' latest failed attempt at baking muffins, and how he tried to hide it by blaming it on the ovens."

"Ah," Riku breathed, his eyes losing interest almost immediately. "Wow, sounds like you have a blast."

"I told you, this is my existence."

Riku snorted. "It doesn't have to be. Haven't you ever wanted to do something really interesting? I mean, something that really gets your blood pumping?"

Sora narrowed his eyes. "Like getting tossed around at the harbor? No thanks. I prefer my blood pumping in my _veins, _not all over the dock."

Riku shrugged. "Eh, to each his own. You can find something else to do. What about race car driving?"

"You can't be serious."

"Shark fisherman? What about being a bounty hunter?"

"…Or I could stick with brewing coffee and sweeping up napkins."

"You could, or you could do something with a little more zest. Surely it's killing you that you have nothing better to do than discuss how Roxas can't cook?"

Sora folded his arms. "No, thank you, I'm fine. Why is having an exciting job so important to you, anyway?"

Riku shrugged again and crossed his legs underneath the table. "I don't know. I spend so much of the rest of the day not doing anything, so why not have a little fun when you work? There's nothing better than being paid for an adrenaline rush."

"I can think of a few things, like living until I turn fifty," Sora said with a smug look on his face. "But you're pursuing this harbor thing with an _obsession._ It's scary."

"Really?" he tilted his head to the side. "I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary. Besides, what does it matter? I like to have fun. So do a lot of people."

"Yeah, but—"

Just as Sora saw this conversation steering in a direction he wasn't comfortable with, Tifa returned with a tray and two other waitresses behind her. She smiled awkwardly as she arranged the tray stand along with her cohort.

"Okay," she said taking a deep breath. "You ordered a cheese burger with no onions, right?"

Riku nodded, his eyes widening at the sheer enormity of the amount of food Sora had ordered. Tifa pushed his plate in front of him, then turned to Sora. "Okay, first we have the country fried steak and eggs…"

Plate after plate of food was delivered to the table, so much so that Riku was concerned that he may have to start piling food into his lap.

"And your pancakes," Tifa continued, taking plates from another waitress. "And your second order of eggs."

Sora rubbed his hands together as the plates kept coming, and he felt even better as the look of panic built on Riku's face. Soon, Riku did have to move his cheeseburger to the edge of the table just so Sora's ham and sides of toast could fit to on the table.

"And finally," Tifa said breathing a sigh of relief. "Your order of French fries smothered and covered in brown gravy, chili, cheese, bacon, sour cream, onions, mushrooms and tortilla strips. Is there anything else I can get you?"

"Ketchup?" Sora asked sweetly.

"Of course," Tifa said with a smile, snagging a bottle off of a nearby table and placing it in front of him. "I'll be around a bit later if you all need…eh…extra napkins."

Sora grinned and neatly opened his silverware, enjoying Riku's stare of incredulity.

"Problem?"

"…No."

"Good."

He dove into the massive amount of food. It tasted just as good as it felt to order all of it in the first place. Riku looked as though he had lost his appetite just looking at all of it, but Sora was both hungry and vengeful. It was a hard, but delicious lesson that Riku would have to learn, he decided as he began cutting into the omelet stuffed with spinach and pulled-pork just in front of him. It would be a delicious lesson indeed.

He grinned around a mouth full of food and reached for the salt and pepper. It would probably do them good to resume their conversation, but he decided to take it from a different angle. "So, what's been going on with you? You obviously didn't fall apart since you dragged your sorry self to my house the other day. What have you been up to?"

Riku leaned back against the booth again and shrugged. "Nothing really, just working and…well, you know."

"Mmhmm." He nodded, trying to sound nonjudgmental. "Is that where you got that bruise on your face?"

"Riku looked surprised, then rubbed it thoughtfully. "Hm, I guess so. Forgot about that."

"You've probably lost count by now, I get it."

Riku took a bite of his cheeseburger and licked a finger thoughtfully. "It's hard to explain why I get such a kick out of these things. I can't help it."

"And that blow to the face didn't knock some sense in you? I don't know why I'm not surprised."

"Probably because you have faith in my victory." He got a dreamy look in his eyes, and Sora realized he had lost control of the conversation.

Riku was getting excited.

"Is that what it is?" Sora said stuffing more food in his mouth. "All my skepticism and disapproval is based on faith in you winning?"

"Of course it is. To be a good fan, you need a dose of drama. Since it's boring knowing that I'm going to win all the time, you have to create some for yourself. Your doubt is merely a reflection of your enjoyment of a good show."

Sora snorted at this and nearly choked on his fries. "Wow, here I've had it wrong all these years."

"It happens to the best of us."

"I bet. So I take it you didn't break anything?"

"Eh, that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, does it?

Sora rolled his eyes. "Well, since it obviously wasn't pride, I'm going to guess your sanity."

"Close. Rib."

Sora nearly dropped his fork. "Are you serious?"

"No, I'm playing a practical joke on you."

"You broke a _rib_? Riku, that time when we were twelve and I fell off that rock wall we were racing up, I just bruised one, and thought I was going to die. How are you not rolling over in agony?"

"How many ribs have I broken in the past, Sora? This is not that big of a deal. Besides, it's more of a _crack_."

Sora thought he should have been feeling just the tiniest bit guilty about enjoying his feast, but after hearing this he started to enjoy it even more, and was remorseful that he didn't add another hundred or so items to his list. If Riku was bent on destroying himself, then Sora was going to make sure that he at least got something out of the deal for having to sit by and watch. He stuffed pancakes in his mouth.

"You should have seen it," Riku continued, the dreamy look in his eyes only intensifying. Sora thought he was going to be sick, so he crammed eggs in his mouth on top of the pancakes.

"I fought_ two_ guys at once. It was pretty great if I do say so myself."

"I'm sure you do."

"Hey, don't be mad just because I have an exciting job. I told you, there's always a place open for you at the harbor. How do you feel about working during the day?"

"I'd rather keep my sanity and my bones intact, thank you." He chose this time to bring a stab of reality back to the conversation. "Besides, this diner wouldn't be able to handle the collective food-debt of _two_ imbeciles." He gestured to the array of plates. "I'd imagine that I cleaned them out of their inventory for the rest of the night."

"And you're proud of this?"

"Are you proud of your broken rib?"

"_Cracked._"

Sora stared at him pointedly and crammed more food into his mouth. "I'm done talking to you. My food is getting cold, and I've barely breeched the surface of this marvelous food ocean."

"Eh…I'll let you get to that, then."

Sora plunged a fork into his food at the table, and for an hour he ate, partly because he was hungry, but mostly because he wasn't sure he would be able to keep from saying something that insulted Riku's career choices or decision making skills. He was determined to have a reasonable evening with his friend, even if it meant ignoring some pretty glaring issues, no matter how much Kairi insisted that she talk to him.

Riku finished his cheeseburger midway through the process and just sat and watched the destruction of enough food to feed a small army of children. The mountain appeared to be too much for Sora, though, and after clearing three and a half plates, he admitted defeat.

"I'm stuffed," he said leaning back in the booth, waving his napkin in surrender. "To-go boxes are going to be a must, and _no, _you can't have any of my leftovers."

"I assumed you wouldn't be so generous."

Tifa arrived a moment later with boxes—as though she knew they were going to be necessary—and the ticket. "I have to say gentlemen, I don't think I've seen a ticket this large at this diner…ever."

"You're welcome," Sora breathed. "This is a lesson taught to our friend Riku over here." He indicated Riku. "He would be more than happy to take care of that."

Tifa uneasily handed him the bill, and Riku swallowed as he prepared to look at the number.

A pained expression.

A victorious grin.

Tifa looked slightly nervous. "Um, you can pay when you're ready…"

Riku managed to scrounge up the proper amount of Munny, much to his dismay and Sora's pleasure, then noticed with a hint of urgency that it was nearing time for him to get ready for work. He told Sora as much, who didn't look pleased, and he begrudgingly followed Riku to his car.

"Well, that was an experience," Riku said getting inside. He handed Sora three of the containers he was forced to carry and waited for Sora to get in. "I'll remember in the future to always get hurt at a decent hour."

"Or you could just not get hurt at all. That just seems like the easy route."

"You're right." Riku beamed. "I just need to get better at fights."

"You are ridiculous."

"Maybe. But you're boring, and somehow, I think that's worse."

Sora stuck his tongue out at him and folded his arm. He meant for the gesture to be playful, but deep down, he really was angry. There was no reason for all of this senselessness. Sure, Sora may not have held the most exciting job on the planet, and by some standards it wasn't even _interesting,_ but at least he was able to put bread on his table and live to see another day.

Unlike Riku and the harbor, where everyday seemed to bring the promise of trouble, and his ever-present fear that something just may be too tough for Riku to handle.

* * *

.

Thank you for reading, and if you have a moment, please don't forget to review!


	4. Lost

Welcome back for Chapter 4.

**Warnings: **Violence, character death

**.**

**Chapter 4: Lost**

* * *

Sora propped his feet up on his coffee table and folded his arms. The television was not doing a satisfactory job of lulling him off to sleep like he had hoped it would, and what was worse was that the remote was buried somewhere underneath him between the couch cushions. He grunted and shifted, trying to find it, but it seemed as if the couch was adamant about keeping the remote—and possibly a sock he had lost some time ago—to itself.

Well, _this_ evening was starting to roll quickly downhill.

Riku had dropped him off and headed off to the makeshift fighting ring he called the harbor, and Sora had gratefully elected to throw himself to bed. Riku was starting to frustrate him, and to top it all off, the meal he had intended to be _Riku_'s punishment had actually become his own. The pancakes did not mix well with the chili already in his stomach, and the fact that cheesecake was resting right on top left his stomach rumbling and his eyes pried open. He had decided to sit on the couch to will his stomach into peace, but a few hours into a nighttime soap opera left him just as awake and uncomfortable as he had been.

He grumbled and rolled around on the couch, shifting positions and tangling himself in the thin blanket he brought with him. Such action actually did produce the remote, so he snatched it from between the cushions before they could eat it again. Holding it to his chest, he flipped channels with record speed and waited for something interesting to strike his fancy.

More soap operas, a comedy show he had no interest in watching, and a half a dozen infomercials flashed through his field of vision before he gave up completely. He turned off the television, threw the remote back on the coffee table, and rolled over onto his back.

The room was dark now, and afterimages of the television danced in front of his eyes as they adjusted to the dark. His stomach gurgled, but aside from that, the room was silent.

Just as his room had been the night before.

Just as his room, and his living room, and his house had been every night Riku didn't come in and crash his home and ruin everything peaceful.

Maybe Riku was right, he allowed himself to mull over just for a moment. The thought that he could be made feel even more uneasy, but he forced himself to entertain it, because he was alone and no one would be around to rub it in his face.

Maybe Riku had been right about how his life was stale, how everything had become so safe around him.

His job was easy, obtained without too much effort. It required little skill and none of the adventure he had craved as a child. What happened to the days when he proclaimed that he was going to go off and be a pirate, or a stunt man for the movies, or some kind of deep-sea fisherman who went after man-sized terrors of the deep with nothing more than a harpoon and his bare hands?

Now his only adventures consisted of finding a clean pair of underwear in the morning and a shirt that could make an argument for matching his pants. What happened to all of the passion he had for life, and will to do something more?

He rolled over on the couch and fumed a little. It was obvious that Riku had stolen all of it. If Sora had any fun anymore these days, it seemed the world might fall apart. Sora had to be Riku's guardian it seemed. Their roles had switched somehow along the way, and Sora had become the responsible one.

Sora looked over at the clock on the wall, and a frown worked itself on his face. He groaned out loud and forced the blanket over his face. This would be the second time this week that Riku kept him awake past reasonable hours. Fine, if Riku wanted to be a reckless idiot, then it was none of his concern. He could go off and explore all of Mars for all it mattered to him. In the mean time, Sora would find a way to make his own fun, and it didn't matter if Riku thought he was boring either.

With that, he crammed a pillow on top of his face and forced his eyes closed. He refused to waste another minute thinking about it.

* * *

Riku cracked his knuckles as he finished loading a box onto a boat exporting material that, from what he could tell, was going to be used for the set of a horror movie. It smelled like chemicals, and if he wasn't mistaken, there was a scaly claw sticking out of a hole in one of the crates. He hoped with all his might he wasn't mistaken on _that_ assumption. If it was going to be used for anything else…well, he rather not think about it.

He brushed his gloves off on his jeans and watched the boat disappear into the night.

It floated away quickly without so much as a horn blast or a light, and he waited patiently for another boat to take its place. While he did so though, he chose to take in the sight of the sea, the moon, and the ink-like waters that were mysterious and deep even though they were so close to land.

It was nice this evening. There was a gentle sea-salt breeze that cooled his body and dried the sweat pouring down his brow. Someone must have mopped the harbor that morning so the scent of rotting fish was somewhat less pungent that evening, which had the pleasant effect of reducing the number of insects buzzing about his ears. It was a pretty perfect evening.

He grinned. He had paid his debt to Sora, his own injuries were healing nicely, and his ribs hadn't protested nearly as much as he would have expected them to, given yesterday's festivities. There was a dull ache every now and then, but he was able to ignore it without too much of a problem. If things kept going this way, then maybe it was worth buying a lottery ticket the next afternoon…

The waves slapped against the base of the harbor, and the nearby boats. His fellow hauling-mates were lifting boxes and grunting in the distance. The white noise was pleasant and welcome, and if he hadn't been working, he might have considered sitting back to enjoy the breeze on his face and the utter perfection that was this atmosphere. If he had his way, he would make a residence here complete with a yard and a dog. There was something about the harbor, despite all its flaws, that was simply unmatched. It relaxed him in a way that his own home could not. It provided him with comfort and stability that did not exist anywhere else in his life, and on the best days, it even provided him with a source of entertainment. He knew it would take a miracle for Sora and his other friends to see the magic of this place, but he was willing to keep the mysteries of the harbor to himself, and only to himself.

The break was short though, as he could barely make out the silhouette of the next incoming boat.

It came in silently, the absence of spot light and horn made Riku suspect that there would be underhanded dealings involved, as always. The port and starboard sides were unmarked and rusted; easy to disguise—or sink—if necessary. It wasn't the first time he dealt with cargo of this nature. In fact, it was a relatively frequent occurrence—an interesting bonus to working at the night shift. So long as he kept his nose out of the contents of the crates, the process should be smooth.

The ropes were tossed to him from the bow of the boat, and he secured them to the dock quickly. As soon as it was secure, a large slab of wood was produced from somewhere and made a rudimentary looking incline for which to push the packages out of the boat. Riku rubbed his hands together and waited.

Four men seemed to be on this boat, all of them dressed in dark clothing and hats to obscure their faces and any distinguishing physical characteristics.

"You're it?" One of the men called to him, and from what Riku could tell, he had green eyes, and perhaps red hair crammed sloppily beneath a hat. "Huh."

Riku shrugged. A mental rolodex of smart remarks spun through his head, but he chose to keep them to himself and finish the job. The man in the hat just chuckled and started hefting boxes. They slid down the incline and to Riku's feet quickly, as though they were full of something heavy.

He wasted no time in getting rid of the cargo. Wheeling a nearby dolly to his left, he packed on box after box as they slid down the ramp and to his feet. Whatever had been packaged was secure. Every crate was even carefully wrapped in some kind of plastic to keep the contents from spilling out, and each end was wound in no less than a yard of packing tape.

"Warehouse A-3," one of the other men called out as he hopped off the boat. He was dressed in the same dark clothing, hair obscured by a hat, eyes blue and piercing.

Riku hadn't remembered ever seeing a warehouse labeled A-3 before, but the thought quickly vanished as assessed the man walking briskly past him. As he did his subconscious survey of his face, he noticed that there was something about it that was familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on exactly what. Whatever it was, the man didn't look too interested in offering him a better look.

He wasn't usually in the business of taking the boxes anywhere but the edge of the dock on the dolly. There was a whole section of loading crew that handled that. He merely had to stand near the boats, keep his questions minimal, and avoid falling into the water. That was it. That was how he preferred it.

He shrugged again and shook his head. "Tell that to those guys," he indicated the hulky looking men behind him, dressed in stained clothing and work gloves. "They'll take your cargo anywhere you want them to go."

The third man walked down the wooden slab with a box in his hands as well. He was a heftier looking individual with darker skin, but so much of his face was obscured that Riku could only tell via the small patch of skin that poked from the space between his sleeve and his gloves.

"We can't ask them to carry our cargo. We—oof!"

He was swiftly elbowed in the ribs by a fourth man who had rapidly slid off of the boat and onto the dock. "You aren't allowed to talk." He hissed, and took the box away from him. He looked down at Riku with a scowl and forced the box into his hands. "You're doing it, kid. The fewer people who handle it the better, if you catch my drift. We won't take 'no' for an answer, so get to it."

Riku felt uneasy about the transaction, but he felt that a large protest about the admittedly rough order of his job requirements might be more trouble than it was worth. He followed the men to around to warehouse A-3 with the dolly, noticing with some dismay that they were watching them rather closely. He assumed that whatever was in the crate was expensive and possibly extremely illegal. He had never been more thankful for his work gloves than this evening, and begrudgingly continued on.

When they had arrived, there was a large pallet off in the far right corner that had been emptied in preparation for the load, and he was to help him stack the boxes neatly onto it. The orders were a silent four-way command by all of the individuals from the ship, and he did so with mirrored silence. The sooner he finished with all of this, the sooner he could get back to appreciating the simple night sky, the mosquito-free air, and the diminished scent of chum.

As he headed back to their boat for another load, he noticed that four men had turned into six, as two more had appeared from somewhere inside the boat, all of them carrying boxes, all of them loading them onto dollies. Riku was a bit alarmed that he hadn't noticed them before, but he just ignored the feeling and hoped that the addition of two more people would just make the job go faster.

Six trips and two sore arms and legs later, the last of the haul was loaded onto the dolly and wheeled into the warehouse. Riku was sweaty, dirty, and tired of being watched like some kind of criminal, when _clearly_ he was not the one dealing in illegal activity. He would take great satisfaction in untying that particular boat from the harbor and sending it far, far away.

As he wheeled the dolly into the warehouse for the last time, he noticed that the pack of black-clad men was actually forming a tighter vanguard around him. He felt that this was probably an indication of trouble, but ignored it for a desperate hope that maybe this particular box in the haul was full of precious, _precious _diamonds, and they were being extra careful.

About three minutes into that theory and it went up in smoke, as he heard the door to the warehouse slam closed, and turned around to find that he had been surrounded. Furthermore, all of them were staring at him in a you're-not-here-just-to-put-stuff-on-a-pallet kind of way. He tried not to show that he was kind of nervous about the whole thing and attempted to get past them with the dolly.

They didn't move, but in fact tightened the circle they were forming between him and the pallet.

Riku sighed.

One of them—the one who had previously been told not to speak by his colleagues started laughing rather maniacally. This was Riku's cue to start flashing back to all of the bad decisions he had made recently, and he found, to his dismay, that there were many that could have resulted in this karmic bed he had made for himself. He decided to hasten things along and wheel the dolly off to the side.

A sinking feeling filled the pit of his stomach, but .he ignored it to focus on polite formalities. "Well, all of your stuff has been carefully and safely delivered, as you can see. I really have to get back to work now so…"

"Not so fast, not so fast," another dark coat-clad man interjected. He had the eyes Riku was positive he had seen before. "Why are you so concerned with work? Don't you want to take a breather?"

"Not really, no."

"Oh come on, come on!" He said again, pulling off his gloves and pocketing them. "Don't you think that you're working too hard these days?" He reached up and pulled off his hat, revealing a shock of blond hair. "It must be hard lifting all those boxes with a _broken rib _and all."

It was now when Riku realized why his eyes had looked so familiar earlier. He had noticed that scar between them yesterday.

When he….

He smacked his hand to his forehead. His memory had _perfect timing_.

Riku had to admit he hadn't really taken Seifer's threats all that seriously the day before, but even if he did, he wouldn't have expected him to show up the next day. Any revenge fighting worth its salt was prolonged over the course of a couple of days, even a week or two. There was the added thrill of wondering if any turn could be a wrong one, an element of surprise. This was…well, this took all the sport out of it.

He folded his arms. It was no use being polite now. Clearly he was expected to take on all six of these men at once, which was, by the look of things, going to be _extremely_ interesting. "It was _cracked_, thank you. And I appreciate the offer, but really, I'm good."

"Oh come now," Seifer said folding his own arms and looking every bit as though he had just won something. "Surely you didn't think I was kidding yesterday, did you?"

"I'll admit, I did sense some puffery there. Can't say I expected you to bring a party."

"Aw, but you don't look pleased."

"You'd be right. Pleased isn't the word I'd use."

"Oh really now?" Seifer practically giggled, as Rai and the others took off their gloves and hats. "Then what word would you use instead?"

"There are a lot of them," he stepped back and hoped for everything that he was worth that he would be able to take out a few of them before he inevitably wound up begging Sora for more frozen food. "But they're not really publically appropriate, so I'll keep them to myself."

"Suit yourself!" Seifer shrugged. "Since you were so kind as to help us unload all of these crates into this discrete warehouse, my friends and I would like to return the favor with a little extra. How does that sound?"

"Great."

Rai laughed again. "Serves you right, y'know? Seifer warned you yesterday. I was there. I heard him."

"Rai, shut up. Let's just get this over with. We've got to get back to headquarters before dawn."

The circle tightened, and Riku balled his fists. This was going to be a spectacular mess, but he pushed himself flat against the pallet of packages and waited for the first punch to be thrown anyway.

As expected, it came from Rai, who charged forward in much the same manner as he had the night before. Riku side stepped, but fell right into the arms of a much more muscular man with curly , reddish brown hair.

He didn't say much, the look on his face was far more telling than any words he could have possibly said. Words and facial expressions were pretty much meaningless though, since he was promptly locked in a full-nelson, and suddenly had much more pressing things to worry about. He squirmed about, but the man was built like a rock. He twisted, jabbed with his elbows, and even tried kicking him in the legs, but the man didn't even wince.

"Huh," Riku wondered out loud. This definitely had the potential to end up even _worse_ than he thought.

As if to confirm his thoughts, the red-head from earlier punched him in the gut, then the ribs then the gut again, then finished it all off with a charming punch to his jaw. It didn't break, but he felt it swell and cursed. He was dropped to the floor, and stared bleary-eyed at the giant of a man who had held him there for the assault in the first place.

A kick found its way to his side a moment later, then another, and another, and he felt the cracked rib from earlier break, followed by two others on his left side. He couldn't breathe, but it was welcome, because every inhale felt like shards of glass were imbedding themselves into his lungs. He knew this fight was over before it even began, but he hadn't expected to fall so quickly.

The men were hovering above him; the redhead was chucking, the muscular one staring at him with disinterest, and another fellow, with long dreadlocks and sharply angled side burns—presumably the one who had kicked him—folded his arms and grinned.

Riku silently hoped that maybe, just _maybe_ these men had a schedule to keep and had better things to do than gang up on a poor loading boy who had obviously deserved this mess. He squeezed his eyes closed and waited for the footsteps leading away, but he wasn't completely surprised when he heard footsteps heading _towards _him instead.

This time it was Seifer who stood above him, grinning like he had just won the lottery. "How was that, kid?"

Riku gritted his teeth. "Nothing special." His lungs protested violently, but he refused to show it.

Seifer leaned down. "No? Not to your liking? That's fine. We have plenty of other tricks you might enjoy instead. Lexaus, if you would be so kind?"

The curly haired man grunted, then grabbed him by the collar and pulled him upright.

So much for hoping for a swift and graceful end, Riku thought bitterly.

Since he knew that his chances of getting out of this without an immediate need for the emergency room were nonexistent, he supposed he might as well give the doctors a lot to practice on. Twisting to shake himself free of Lexaus' grip, he swung at his ribs two times with all his might. He succeeded in getting free, but tore his shirt in the process. It didn't matter though, because in an instant, the dreadlocked gentleman grabbed him by the hair and pilled his neck back, giving Seifer and the redhead access to his stomach and throat.

He tucked his knees up to his chest and projected his feet outward, knocking Seifer backward into the redhead, and both of them into Rai. Riku himself wished that he had the opportunity to watch, as he assumed it would have been quite comical, but Lexaus' forearm was now under his chin, and he was dangling above the ground ever so slightly.

"Ow!" Rai howled, when his back hit the ground. "Watch what you're doing, Axel. There are people standing here, y'know?"

Axel jumped up and rubbed his stomach. "Shut up!" He rushed forward, calling for some man named Luxord, and all six of them were on Riku, kicking punching, and generally inconveniencing any hope he had of being able to finish working that evening.

Or being able to walk home.

He saw stars dance behind his eyes, and there was a point when his body numbed and the impact of the blows was much more tolerable. He had a niggling suspicion that he should be concerned about what this could mean, but given that he was currently at the mercy of six sets of fists and feet, looking gift-horses in the mouth seemed dreadfully time consuming.

When they stopped, it was all Riku could do not to cry in thankfulness. He had is pride of course, but even Riku could tell when seeing the light of tomorrow might not be a reality. He could feel nothing but a dull throbbing about his body, and he was sure that if he could see, his body would be a mangled mess, broken, bruised, bloody. It just so happened though that both of his eyes were dangerously close to swelling shut, and the vague shadows and flashes of color were the only clues he had as to what was happening in the room.

"You have just about enough, kid?"

A voice that sounded like Seifer's wafted through his ears. He was panting, his voice heavy and rough. Riku couldn't respond.

"I said, 'did you have enough, kid?'"

Riku still couldn't respond, and he felt Seifer moving about, possibly lifting him up by the hair.

"I think we did good, y'know?" Rai said, also with an airiness in his voice that indicated exhaustion. "He won't try to mess with us anymore."

"Shut up!' Seifer spat, giving Riku's hair a good shake. "Xaldin, Lexaus, hold him up by the arms for me."

The two men moved wordlessly, but Rai's mouth hung open. "What are you doin' Seifer?"

"I thought I told you to shut up." Seifer cracked his knuckles and took half a step forward. "You don't just get to mess with me and then walk away. That's not how our organization does business."

Riku hovered soundlessly, relying on the blurred image of Seifer's moving lips, and the brief pockets of sound coming through to tell he was being addressed.

"Oh right," Rai grinned. "But I don't think he can walk away. We took care of that!" He gave a vague gesture to Riku's battered limbs and punctuated his statement with a nod.

Seifer ignored him and pulled his gloves back on. "I want to hear an apology."

"An apology?"

"Yes," Seifer said, closing his gloved fingers around Riku's neck. "I want to hear him say he's sorry for causing us such an inconvenient night. Don't you think that's fair?"

"Eh...okay…" Rai looked unsure of what was happening and looked around the faces of his comrades. Xaldin, Lexaus and Luxord looked largely disinterested, and Axel rolled his eyes.

"But Seifer," Rai muttered.

"Quiet!" Seifer hissed. "I want to be able to hear." He squeezed his hand and felt Riku's throat constrict under his fingers. "You've messed with some of the most powerful men in the universe. The Organization is not a group that shows people like you mercy. You might be fortunate enough to be granted one of our rare excuses from an immediate end. Say you're sorry."

Riku felt the air cut off, and his vision danced between blurred colors to solid gray. Had he the strength to move he might have successfully been able to at least buy himself a few extra minutes to breathe, but Lexaus and Xaldin held his arms steady. He felt blood from a punctured lung surging up his throat, but it stopped at the base of Seifers fingers, just where the air did.

"I can't hear you," Seifer said squeezing tighter. "Where's my apology? Don't tell me you want me to beat it out of you."

"Eh, Seifer," Rai said quietly, his expression sheepish.

"Will you shut up?!" He roared, forcing Rai to shrink back. "I'm busy!" He turned back to Riku. "Apologize!"

Riku's lungs burned. His heart thudded loudly against his cracked ribs, pumping blood out of wounds littering his body, and pushing it up his throat. It was an agony much worse than the moments before when he was bouncing between clenched fists and sharp boots, because here, he was helpless against the limitations of his own body. Punches could be blocked, and bruises would heal, but no amount of physical strength could stave off the impending result of oxygen-starved lungs.

The grayness before his eyes darkened, and he could feel his throat struggling beneath the fingers around his throat. Seifer was shouting at him, but he was becoming deaf to it, the sound of his own heartbeat loud and overbearing. His body felt hot, like molten rock quivering beneath the surface of a volcano.

And then the volcano exploded.

And suddenly, the heat was swept away.

And he was left with a cold, dark emptiness unlike anything he had ever felt before.

Seifer shook Riku at the neck a bit, and was practically foaming at the mouth at his lack of response. "Did you hear me you little brat? I said apologize! I want to hear you beg for forgiveness!"

Rai whispered Seifer's name again to get his attention, but Seifer nearly punched him. "I told you to keep your mouth shut! If you bother me one more time, you'll be in the same position as this brat!"

"But S—" Rai clamped his own hand over his mouth and looked pitifully at Axel.

Axel pinched the bridge of his nose and rolled his eyes. "Seifer…"

"Don't you start bothering me, either!'

Axel narrowed his eyes. "Are you threatening _me_? I will clean this floor with your _face_."

Seifer seemed to reconsider his previous outburst and shot a glance backward. "Yes Axel?"

"Much better. Did you ever stop to think, just for a moment, why he isn't apologizing to you?"

Seifer's eyebrow twitched at being spoken to in such a manner, but he forced words he considered to be obvious through his teeth. "Because he's a sniveling bastard!"

"No," Axel said slowly, as though he were speaking to a child. "Although you yourself have proven to be the face of maturity and decorum after organizing a six-on-one fight in the middle of the night at the harbor."

Seifer felt a vein in his forehead throb. "You didn't seem to have a problem with it!"

Axel rolled his eyes. "Think a little harder, Seifer. I know you can do it."

Seifer glanced back at Riku, who's neck had sagged backward. His eyes were closed. "What? Did someone punch him in the ear? Can he not hear me?"

Axel slapped his hand over his forehead and walked over to where he, Lexaus, and Xaldin were standing. He gestured to Riku. "What's the problem here?"

"He's not answering me."

"Right. Where is your hand?"

"Around his neck. I'm punishing him." He said matter-of-fact, eyebrows kitted in confusion.

Axel nodded slowly. "Right. Around his neck. And what's in his neck?"

"His throat.?"

"Very good, Seifer. What's important about a throat?"

Seifer felt his neck heating up, frustration setting in. "Um…well…lots of things I guess."

"Go ahead and name a few."

"Eating?"

"And?"

"Breathing?"

Axel clapped his hands together. "Excellent! One more, and you'll get a sticker. If you have your hand around his throat, he probably can't breathe or talk, which would mean what?"

Seifer coughed. "…Um…what?"

"That _you_ are the reason he's not apologizing to you!" Axel roared, nearly scaring Seifer out of his skin.

Seifer slowly shifted his gaze from the fuming Axel to the lifeless Riku and unclenched his fingers. He supposed in all his rage he had forgotten about that…

With Axel's narrowed eyes on him, he slowly unclenched his fingers, and winced at the bruising he had caused. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and put his hands on his hips. "Well, erm…well anyway, now you can apologize to me. We've had quite the night because of your antics, and I think it would be…uh…appropriate."

Riku didn't move.

Seifer cleared his throat again. "I _said_ 'now you can apologize.'"

Riku remained motionless.

Seifer glanced nervously about the faces of his cohort, each of which had identical looks of impatience, save for Rai, who looked a mixture of confused and scared, and Axel who looked downright homicidal.

Seifer tentatively poked Riku's shoulder, and waited for something, _anything_, to happen, but he remained motionless, and a feeling of dread crept up Seifer's spine.

"Great," Axel muttered. "You've killed him."

"I did not!" He snapped, his mind reeling with worry for a potential mistake he may have made. He clenched his fists nervously and ordered Lexaus and Xaldin to put him on the ground. Riku's body kind of slumped there, reminding him of a towel dropping to the floor. If he had indeed killed him, then he would be in a world of trouble once he got back to headquarters.

He cleared his throat again and bent down to feel for a pulse, hoping with all his might that he had simply gotten a little carried away, but nothing distinctly bad would happen. There would be a pulse, and the six of them could just sail away into the darkness as they had planned to do all evening.

A quick search yielded that the little fantasy was just that, and that maybe, he would have to prepare for that world of trouble he was soon to be in.

There was no pulse.

Seifer gulped hard and jumped back, nearly sitting on Axel's foot. Xaldin and Lexaus grumbled something unintelligible, Luxord began heading for the door, Axel merely shook his head in irritation, and Rai started nervously chewing his fingernails.

"What are we going to do now, Seifer? He's dead, y'know?"

"I know!" Seifer bellowed. "I…um, I meant to do this. Now you all have to help me hide the body!"

Rai's face drained of color, and the rest groaned in unison.

Luxord, however, was already near the garage door. "I didn't sign up for this. I'll be on the boat when you all are finished. Later." He waved half heartedly and lifted the door just enough to slip through it.

Seifer swallowed again. "We don't need him. This won't take but a few minutes. If you all just help me drag him someplace, we can—"

Axel shook his head and started to head for the door as well, followed by Lexaus and Xaldin. "This wasn't _my_ fault. I came here as a favor, so I refuse to get reamed for _your_ screw up. You have ten minutes, or you're swimming back." Luxord and Xaldin grumbled in affirmation, and all three of them slipped through the door, just as Luxord had.

Rai was alone, standing with his knees buckled and his hands shaking.

Seifer frowned. "Well, let's get to it then. We don't have all day."

"I'd rather not, y'know? I mean, we—"

"Did I stutter? Help me put him someplace."

Rai's face drained of more color, if that was even possible, but the fear of being harmed convinced him that he had better ignore his fears and help. He wiped his hands off on his pants and put his gloves back on.

"Seifer," He whispered, grabbing for Riku's feet. "This is bad, y'know?"

Seifer ignored the rapid thrumming of his own heart, and the iciness that raced through his veins. Instead he grabbed Riku's wrists and heaved him upward. "Shut up and lift."

.

* * *

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	5. Out of Body

**Chapter 5: Out of Body**

* * *

There was a loud horn in the distance, which Riku immediately recognized as an incoming vessel. He listened for a few more moments, and the sound of sliding boxes, waves lapping against the dock and the bow of the boat confirmed it. He was at the harbor, supposed to be lifting boxes.

He sat up with a start, scratching his head, and wondering how on earth he had managed to fall asleep when he was supposed to be working, then he remembered that he had enjoyed the coolness of the air, the smell of the salt, and the gentleness of the sounds of the sea. He must have dozed off in one of the storehouses. Feeling oddly weightless, and well rested, he sat up to figure out just where he had wound up, and more importantly, how he was going to get himself back to the boat before people started wondering where he was.

He decided with a hint of amusement, he doubted anyone would really wonder where he was. Part of the appeal of the harbor was that his exact location wasn't really monitored. All that truly mattered was that the work was finished, and that his supervisor never caught him slacking. Most other things were irrelevant. Keeping that thought in mind, he pushed himself to his knees and tried to stay hidden in the shadows just in case his supervisor was afoot.

Then a thought occurred to him. The storehouse was dark and often had droves of items packed within it with ambiguous shadows, but never before had he seen so _many._ It seemed as if he had fallen asleep in some kind of cave. A quick survey of his surroundings denied the possibility of a random cave suddenly appearing, but it did look as though he had somehow fallen off of whatever he had been sleeping on, and landed in a nest of empty crates. From the look of things, they hadn't seen human care in years, and smelled as such. Why on earth would he have chosen such a place to take a nap?

He scratched his head and looked above him. The boxes were covered in dust, towering precariously over him and raining bits of debris on his head. Certainly he hadn't decided to climb up there to rest, as the probability of them clattering to the ground was high. A closer examination of the boxes, however, revealed that maybe he wasn't so correct about his assumption of the fate of the crates.

Peppered around each of them were sets of finger marks, fresh and clear against the surface of otherwise dust-caked wood. Well, _that_ was strange. Maybe he had been moving them and had somehow knocked himself out.

He rubbed his head, and felt that it was free of knots or pain. The thought of having done so was a bit alarming, as he never ventured to the store houses to move equipment. If that was the case, then no one probably knew that he had been back there, and—

Riku felt strangely cold as a memory worked its way into his consciousness. He remembered enjoying the breeze alright, but he also recalled that another boat had come in, interrupting his appreciation of the night. He had unloaded the dubiously legal cargo, having to cede to fussy crewmembers who were all too particular about _which_ indifferent crew member hauled it into an obscure warehouse. Then there was something awkward…

His mind worked quickly, and he remembered that Seifer had shown up and a host of other people. Then there was a fight, and…

_Oh._

Now he remembered. There was the unfortunate brawl-tuned-slaughter he had ended up in, and admittedly deserved. It wasn't really his fault though. If people insisted on making these sorts of things so easy, he didn't think it was fair for him to take all of the blame.

Seifer was just so easy to anger. One look at his permanently downturned eyes proved that. Riku would even bet that that scar crossing his face was probably caused during some outrageous temper tantrum. Throwing a burly individual like Rai into the mix added an extra element of intensity, and it became like staring at a tidy buffet of desserts. If the only consequence was spoiling dinner, the sacrifice was well worth diving in head first. He grimaced remembering that the fight hadn't quite been as kempt as he would have preferred, as a fair assortment of other people had shown up, making it a little more difficult to have fun.

Bad memories of being pummeled into oblivion filled his head, especially since he knew just how much Seifer was probably enjoying the whole thing. He clenched his fists with the memory, toes curling at the thought of enacting revenge, when another thought occurred to him.

If he was still able to move with relative ease, then maybe he actually won?

Well, _that_ was highly unlikely, but given the circumstances, he supposed it was _possible_. He chuckled to himself. He didn't really remember throwing any spectacular punches—except for kicking Seifer in the stomach—_that _was pretty good—but nothing win-clenching. He really had to hand it to himself. If he managed to take home a victory without even remembering it himself, it must have been some fight. He couldn't wait to tell Sora about it when he returned. That would certainly validate his activities late in the evenings, especially since he took on six people without getting his neck broken.

Now though, he needed to get back to work, so he set about hunting for his gloves on the ground.

And then he saw it.

Or more specifically, _him._

_Himself._

He was there, lying on the ground, bloody, bruised, and unmoving. His skin had taken on the color of chalk, the mottled purple bruises visible even in the dim light of the warehouse.

Riku jumped backward, letting out a small yelp that he would never admit to later. It couldn't be possible. How could he be in two places at once? How long had he been sitting on top of…

A wave of nausea overcame him and he had to look away. It was impossible. People did not just separate from their bodies in real life. It could not happen. It was just the stuff of horror movies that Sora always dragged him over to watch. He put his hands over his ears as though hiding from it, and willed the body away, and for himself to be back in one piece, preferably on his way to the hospital. He shook his head for good measure, squeezed his eyes shut, and muttered a brief curse-laden mantra that he hoped would cause him to wake up.

He looked back over in the corner behind the boxes, but the image did not change. He was still sitting there, unmoving, lifeless.

Being the victim of an unfortunate hallucination was far too much punishment for being a tiny bit addicted to fighting, Riku thought bitterly. He tried again, mantra and all, but found that he was still in two places, and starting to believe that maybe this wasn't a hallucination after all. Curiosity clearly set on by the shock led him to crawl back to the motionless body, hoping that perhaps it could provide him with clues as to how all of this happened in the first place. Maybe he had been knocked in the head a few times…

A quick overview confirmed that he had indeed been knocked in the head a few times, along with a host of other injuries that would earn a reasonably high score on the extra credit project of some medical intern. Even Riku was surprised that he had managed to survive such injuries, especially given the dark ring of bruises circling his neck indicating some kind of strangulation.

As he pondered this, he felt a horrible sinking feeling befall him, as though he was about to open the cage door of a rabid beast. What if he _hadn't_ survived the fight? What if this wasn't some hallucination, or dream that he could will himself away from?

What if he hadn't made it through that fight?

What if he had been _killed_?

Riku felt another wave of nausea overcome him, and tried to take in a few gulps of air to calm himself.

This exercise actually proved to worsen his condition, as he realized that he couldn't feel air enter his lungs. Panic overcame him and he pushed a hand to his chest where he knew his heart was.

There was no pulse.

"This can't be happening," he said out loud, glad to see that at least he had a voice. He could talk. He could feel—the panic proved that. Maybe that was all that was important. People didn't need to have a heartbeat, or inhale oxygen in order to live. Feeling and talking were the only things necessary for life. He nodded to keep his hysterics in check and then willed himself to look back at the body. He then slowly looked down at whatever _he_ was.

He was strangely transparent, like a projection, or some holographic image. Curiously, he touched the crate next to him. His hand slid right through it.

Snatching his hand back as though he had touched a stove, he stared bewildered at the crate. The possibility of being dead was starting to become much more of a reality than he thought. Determined though, he slowly stretched his hand out again and willed it to clamp firmly on the corner of the crate.

To his surprise, it did not slide through as it had the first time he had tried.

With a smug grin, he thought he might just be a bit closer to cheating whatever had been going on, but the moment he broke his concentration, his fingers slid through the box, effectively wiping the grin off of his face.

He took a breath-not-breath, and closed his eyes. He really was dead. More specifically, he had somehow turned into a ghost, and his body was just sitting in the warehouse like some kind of rag doll for an undetermined amount of time.

Riku grumbled something unintelligible and ran a hand down his face. He had to figure out something. Maybe there was something important he was supposed to do. Why else was he still wandering around on the planet as though he was still human, cruelly having to discover that he was actually not on his own. Unfairness to this degree usually didn't come without some kind of goal.

Mentally exhausted and mind already steering towards its usual solution when he found himself in trouble, he figured it might be a good idea to get as far away from the docks as possible. Seifer and the rest of his entourage might still be lurking around, and while he found the idea of haunting them entertaining, he would have much preferred to enter round three with him in a more solid state.

It occurred to him that he might need to do something with his body. The thought of actually dragging himself somewhere without garnering the attention of someone, digging a hole and throwing himself in it made him wretch. He couldn't handle that. Not now.

Hiding it sounded much easier to stomach, and if he wasn't physically buried, he could perhaps pretend for a little while longer that none of this was real, and that he would wake up from this horrible, horrible nightmare.

Seifer and his company had done a fair job of tucking his body behind a few crates, but with his luck, someone might come into the warehouse and discover him. He probably had little to worry about in this area, as he didn't even know that it had existed before all of this happened, but he didn't want to take any chances. Using the knowledge he had gained earlier, he concentrated on lifting a nearby crate, concentrating so that his fingers wouldn't slip through.

Pleased that he was able to retain a small element of his humanity, he stacked a few more until he was satisfactorily hidden by the dust-coated boxes. He didn't want to think about what might become of his body. He refused.

Turning his nose up from the stack of boxes, he set about stepping forward, and found that his feet actually hovered about an inch above the ground. He rolled his eyes and barked out a humorless laugh. Of course he could float. He was a ghost now. Choosing not to think much more of it for fear of launching himself into a panic attack, he headed off in the direction of Sora's house.

Sora slid the pillow off of his eyes and growled. A few colors swirled in front of his eyes in the darkness, and he cursed them. He cursed the colors, he cursed the pillow, and he cursed the couch. He even extended a few curses to Riku for good measure, then he sat up fully in the living room and ran a hand through his hair.

It was well past a suitable hour and he still had yet to fall asleep. This was likely to lead to unbridled crankiness at work in a few hours, and Roxas and Kairi were going to pester him about it. Perfect.

Disgusted by how pathetic he felt, he threw himself off of the couch and gathered up his blanket. A change to his actual bed might do him well, considering that tossing and turning on the couch was proving to be unhelpful. He spared one final angry glare at his couch, and trudged off to his bedroom, where he threw the blanket over his face and waited for sleep to overcome him. As he partly expected, he felt just as awake as ever, but he supposed if he just sat there long enough, maybe his body wouldn't know the difference. He narrowed his eyes underneath the covers a few mere moments after snuggling beneath them, as his head made solid contact with the mattress.

He had forgotten his pillow.

Riku, meanwhile walk-floated up the hill to Sora's house, unaware that his friend was battling the throes of insomnia. He wondered if this was what all ghosts did: wander around in the late evening, searching for friends, family, anyone who might be able to find a possible remedy for their ghost-hood.

The thought amused him, but he doubted it. He hadn't seen any other bodiless beings wandering around this evening, and if there were that many people searching for ways to be restored to their original living selves, he might have discovered many more poorly hidden bodies during his time on the island. He cracked a grin at the thought of playing hide and seek at shore in one of the ruddy shacks during his childhood, only to see someone tumbling out, waiting for their own ghost to return. He himself would have probably jumped out of his own skin, and he bet Sora just might wet himself. It would have been rather awkward, and no one would ever want to leave their own houses for fear of disturbing someone's hiding place on accident.

That meant though, that he was probably doomed to be as he was, wandering about until…well, he wasn't sure.

That thought made regret well up inside him, and he had to concentrate on his floating feet to keep from letting the feeling consume him. How one simple mistake could cause him to end up this way was surreal to consider. He had engaged in some risky behavior, sure, but he didn't think it would ever cause him to end up with more trouble than what a hospital—or better, Sora's personal medical supply—could handle. He hadn't ever thought it could end up so disastrously.

He hadn't thought he would end up _dead._

Riku shook his head and continued on. Though it looked hopeless, there was a twinge of hope. He _was_ the only ghost he had ever seen, even as he wandered around a ghost himself. If he was a novel situation, an anomaly to the usual alternative of being beaten to death, maybe, just maybe his body wouldn't be doomed to rotting at the harbor. And Sora was into all sorts of things. Maybe he had read something about all of this, maybe he had a secret elixir of some kind stored behind the iodine and cotton balls in his medical box to get him back to his body—back to life.

More determined than ever, he hastened his walk-floating to run-floating and sped towards Sora's house.

As he approached the door, he pondered knocking, but decided that it really wasn't necessary. He stuck his hand through the wood, still shocked that the appendage was able to pass through so fluidly, then followed through with his body.

Riku looked about, and wasn't surprised to see that the house was empty. It was late, and a glance at the clock confirmed his suspicions that no matter how clear of an emergency this was, Sora was not going to be pleased at being woken up.

As he gazed about Sora's space, he felt comforted, as he always did. He just hoped his friend would somehow overcome his new appearance and be willing to advise him on the best course of action. He wouldn't really even mind if Sora was just as perplexed as he was. It would be nice to have someone to be there with him, help him overcome this.

Not that Riku would ever admit this out loud, of course.

He mused at Sora's couch and the pillow that had been left there. He wondered if Sora had decided to crash there for the night to stave off the inevitable stomach ache produced by his feast from earlier. Riku snorted. It would serve him right. That was an expensive meal.

He reached for the pillow, thinking it would be a good gesture to return it to Sora as an apology gift for barging in his room, when he heard a disgruntled growl echo from the very room he was about to invade. He tilted his head to the side and listened. Either Sora had turned into a bear—hopefully not the same way he himself had turned into a ghost—or his friend was _not_ in the best of moods.

Sora growled again, fully twisted up in the sheets of his bed, awake, grumpy, and without his pillow. At this point he was convinced he was doomed to stay up for the entire night, but the thought of losing to his own body was simply too much to bear. He freed himself, released another groan, and marched his way into the living room. He rounded the corner, but stopped mid-step as his tired eyes took in a sight he did not understand.

He saw Riku.

Or rather, something that _looked_ like Riku because he was transparent.

Holding his pillow.

Two thoughts crossed his mind as he stood there staring with a look of utter incredulity on his face. The first was that he had somehow actually fallen asleep, and that this was a rather strange dream.

The second was a confirmation of that fact, because Riku would _never_ be so thoughtful as to return something to him in real life. Furthermore he hadn't arrived there looking as though he had just come out of a meat grinder like every other time.

Sora snorted at his own subconscious creativity, marched over to the transparent Riku and snatched the pillow away. "Thanks," he muttered, then stormed back to his room.

Once there, he threw himself back in his bed, but his arm missed clearing the nightstand by about an inch.

Sora rolled his eyes. This night was getting even better, he thought as he rubbed his wrist, worrying about the bruise that was likely to form. He was probably all out of ice, and Roxas and Kairi were going to think he was the clumsiest person ever, and then he'd never get any peace, especially if…

His eyes snapped open. If this was an elaborate dream, then he should have been spared any pain. He looked about his room for a moment, frowned, then headed back to the living room. If Riku was really standing in there, he was supposed to be solid, littered with injuries, and sniveling out apologies, as was proper.

He swiveled to a stop at the doorway and looked in.

There was the transparent Riku again, staring at him sheepishly. He even had the audacity to offer a small wave.

Sora's jaw promptly hit the floor.

"Um…hi," Riku said quietly, looking at his shoes, which hovered above the floor. "Did I wake you up?"

Sora couldn't move. His jaw was fixed in place, and his eyes refused to blink.

Riku chuckled nervously. "I can understand the surprise. I was too. Eh, as you can see, I've gotten myself into a little situation and—"

He didn't have an opportunity to finish his sentence, because Sora immediately started screaming.

* * *

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Please take a moment to offer some feedback. I'd greatly appreciate it!


	6. Reality

So sorry about the late update everyone! Time got away from me.

**Chapter 6: Reality**

* * *

Riku couldn't say that he was really surprised that Sora had such a reaction to his new appearance. He had also thought he had been the victim of some terribly realistic nightmare. When Sora ran into his room while continuing to scream with the pillow over his head, though, Riku thought he may be overacting just a touch.

Riku put his hands on his hips and frowned. Sure, he wasn't as cuddly as he used to be, but he didn't think he looked _that_ bad. Sora was acting if _he_ had been the one suddenly outside of his body.

He floated down the hallway and pushed himself through the door to tell him as much, but the action seemed to worsen Sora's condition, and the screaming intensified in volume.

"Oh you can't be serious," Riku said tilting his head to the side. "Cut it out, you're going to wake up everyone in the apartment complex."

Sora began weeping in conjunction with the screaming, causing him to choke. Through a fit of coughs and tears mixed with a strange warble of a scream, Riku tried to interject.

"You're being kind of a baby about this."

Sora's eyes widened as he peered at Riku from beneath the pillow, then scooted as far away from him as possible, which meant falling over the other side of the bed. "Get away from me!" He screamed.

Riku just stared and shook his head. He was going to have to find braver friends.

"Get away!" Sora repeated, lower lip quivering. "You aren't real. I'm hallucinating from lack of sleep. I don't believe you're there!"

Riku rolled his eyes. "Of course you believe I'm here, otherwise you wouldn't be crying."

"I'm _not_ crying!" Sora howled and forced himself into a corner "I'm expelling excess water in my body through my eyes. And anyway it doesn't matter what you think because you're not real!"

"Then _why _are you talking to me?"

Sora opened his mouth to respond, but realized that he couldn't generate an answer. "Look," he said holding back a sniffle. "I don't know why my mind decided to create you, but I have too many things to do that require me to be sane. I can't have cracked yet. I have to go to work in a few hours!"

Riku folded his arms. "You aren't crazy."

"Then why am I talking to a ghost?!" Sora howled again and yanked the blanket off of his bed and tucked it around himself. "I could have at least imagined someone original. Instead you're my idiot friend Riku."

"'Idiot friend?' Is that how you refer to me when I'm not around?" Riku scoffed. "Some friend you are!"

Sora hiccuped and waved the blanket at him. "It doesn't matter what you think. You're not real. Go away!" He flicked the blanket in Riku's direction a few times.

The sheet passed through his body as though it were air, making Riku narrow his eyes. He appreciated Sora's caution, but he didn't have patience for a lot of time consuming drama. He didn't know how long he had in order to return to his body, provided he even could.

"Look," he started, folding his hands. "I need you to just listen for a minute I—cut it out!"

Sora continued to wave the blanket through him as if it were some kind of dust rag clearing off a coffee table. It hadn't worked, so he merely increased the intensity of the waving. "You aren't real!" He yelled again. "Ghosts aren't real!"

Riku realized he wouldn't be able to get through to him without at least calming him down first, and he knew he wouldn't be able to do so with a blanket passing through his body. Forcing himself to concentrate on his fingers, he gripped the blanket and snatched it away from Sora.

"Now that I have your attention," he said, putting the blanket back on the bed. "I'd like to talk to you for a moment."

The action had the opposite effect, and all of the color drained out of Sora's face. He made a strange choking sound, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

"Oh for the love of…" Riku muttered, floating over to Sora. He couldn't afford to have his friend die _too._ He needed someone to help him figure out this mess, not contribute to it.

"Wake up," he said hunching over Sora's body and gripping him by the collar. "You had plenty of time to sleep earlier. I need your help."Riku shook him a few times for good measure, but Sora remained solidly passed out.

"At this rate, I'm not even going to apologize," Riku muttered, and concentrated on the flesh of Sora's face. He couldn't have his hands going right through him if he intended to wake him up. He coated Sora's face with a few well aimed slaps, and to his satisfaction, Sora jumped awake, nearly throwing himself into the wall.

"Ow. Hey, what are you doing here? What happened?" He slurred, blinking a few times.

"You passed out."

"Oh." He squinted at Riku and rubbed his eyes. "I must have fallen asleep on the floor. Weird dream."

"…Or maybe you passed out."

Sora blinked, then rubbed his eyes again. "Just a minute. I can't see."

"You can see just fine. Get up. I need you to help me."

"No I can't," Sora muttered, rubbing his eyes harder. "Everything's blurry…"

Riku hung his head in defeat. "Your vision isn't blurry. I am. It's not going to change, unless of course you _help me_."

Sora rubbed his eyes for a few more seconds then stared at Riku, realizing that the sight of his transparent friend wasn't going away. It took a few minutes for it to click that it might not have been a dream that he had, which meant that a ghost was still trying to talk to him.

He promptly started screaming again.

Riku gave up being cordial and slapped a hand over Sora's mouth. "Quit it! Stop screaming and help me!"

Sora's eyes widened and he shook his head, muttering unintelligibly. Riku made an irritated sound and leaned in close.

"Sora, listen to me. I'm not going to hurt you, but I'll only take my hand off of your mouth if you stop screaming. Then, I'll tell you what's going on, and you can decide afterward if you're crazy or not."

Sora gulped deeply and nodded, fearing that if he didn't agree, Riku the ghost might turn hostile and make the lights start blinking.

Riku glared at him for a final moment before releasing his hold and sitting back on his knees. "Much better. Thank you."

"Your hands are cold," Sora said breathlessly, not sure if running would help, He didn't think his legs would cooperate with him either.

"Sorry," Riku muttered. "I apparently don't retain heat like I used to."

"Right," Sora said with a sharp nod. "Because you're a ghost."

"Right."

There was a sudden pause where neither of them knew what to say. Riku was pondering where to begin, and Sora was contemplating the likelihood of visitation privileges at the mental hospital he was going to check himself into in the morning.

Riku broke the silence, since he wasn't sure how long he would have before Sora lost his self control again. "Sora, you're not crazy."

"I'm not?" It was really more of a statement than a question of an already accepted truth, but Riku ignored him and pressed on.

"No. Not unless we both are."

Sora narrowed his eyes. "I don't believe in ghosts."

"I can think of one overwhelmingly critical reason for you to start believing in them now."

Sora's narrowed eyes grazed over Riku for a few moments longer, and he let out an un-amused snort. "Okay, ghost. Let's say that I do believe in you, and that I'm not crazy. Why do you look like Riku? Ghosts are only supposed to exist if someone dies, and from what I remember, Riku is still alive and kicking."

Riku chewed his bottom lip, feeling a wave of embarrassment. How was he supposed to tell his friend that he had wound up getting himself killed by the very thing that Sora had warned him about in the first place? His body may have been left at the harbor, but his pride was still very much with him. "Well," he started. "That's a very good question."

"I know it is. Now if you'll excuse me, Mr. ghost…sir, I'd like to enjoy my last few hours as a free man."

"Wait," Riku forced out. "I _do_ have an answer for you, but it's…just not easy to say."

"Try."

"Well…sometimes people…eh…there are times when we all make decisions we shouldn't, and…well…"

Sora rolled his eyes. "You're just trying to make something up, and I'm not buying it. I understand. Not many people know just how sharp I am until they realize much too late that I can't be tricked. I'll give you points for effort, but I'm afraid your little game is—"

"I _died,_ Sora." Riku muttered quietly, suddenly unable to make eye contact, and forcing Sora into silence. "I made a mistake tonight, and I died. _That_'s why I look like Riku. I _am_ Riku."

Sora let the information sink in for a moment, then snorted, crossing his arms, with a skeptical look on his face. He leaned back and crossed his ankle over his knee, bouncing his foot up and down. "Prove it."

Riku, who was still reeling a bit from hearing himself say it out loud didn't quite know what to say. He knew that the skepticism should have been expected, but given the severity of the situation, he didn't know how much longer he had to entertain it. "How else can I prove it? I'm a _ghost_."

"Say something only Riku would say."

"There isn't much I can say that you wouldn't know. Aren't you trying to prove your own sanity?"

"Oh. Right." He rubbed his chin with his thumb and thought.

Riku watched the proverbial gears turn in his head, and began to wonder if Sora was ever going to believe him. If he had to spend the rest of his days wandering around without a body, that was one thing, but if he had to do so alone, _that _would be an entirely different problem altogether. He hadn't given up on the idea of somehow being able to get back to his normal self, but he needed help to do so, and Sora was the only available—and preferred—option. Even if he couldn't, he would like to think that he could at least spend the rest of the time he had left wandering around with someone he knew. If he couldn't figure out a way to convince Sora that this was real, and that he wasn't crazy, he may be doomed to a fate worse than being a ghost.

Being alone.

Something clicked in Sora's mind, and he snapped his fingers, interrupting Riku from is steadily declining hope. "I have a question for you."

He looked up. "What?"

"When we were kids, we used to race up and down the island."

"That's not a question."

"I know! I'm getting to it." Sora snapped. "We raced down a long track with a few obstacles to keep it interesting. You won the majority of the races, but I won three of them. Name the day of one."

Riku twisted up his face in outrage. "What are you talking about? You never won a single race. Ever."

Sora folded his arms. "I did to. I might have exaggerated with the number three, but I won at least _two._"

"No you didn't. I won every time."

The color started to drain out of Sora's face again."…Maybe it was one."

"No it wasn't," Riku argued, taking only brief notice of the sudden fear that washed over Sora's face. "I won every single time. In fact, we stopped racing because you couldn't win and you whined to Kairi that I was cheating." He folded his arms, suddenly angry. "And it's not fair to ask me a question that you don't even know the correct answer to."

Sora's mouth hung open and Riku thought he might be on the verge of passing out again. He didn't think he would be able to take another round of trying to convince Sora of his sanity. "…Ask me a different question," he begged. "That one shouldn't count."

"No, no, no, that was a perfect question." He said, uncrossing his legs and pushing himself closer to the wall. "You've got to be kidding me. You're a—you…"

"We've gotten past what I am," Riku snapped, the reality of possibly losing his best friend for eternity starting to become very apparent. "I need to focus on _who _you think I am. I don't know how to prove to you I'm the real thing."

"You did," Sora said, barely above a whisper. "I believe you."

An expression of bewilderment washed over Riku's features, and then he became angry for an entirely different reason. "_What?_"

"I said you just proved your case," Sora replied, his lower lip trembling, hairs standing up on the back of his neck. "You really are Riku."

"And how do you gather _that_?" Riku said, jabbing a finger in Sora's direction. "And I don't want you just playing along because you think you're insane. Give me at least that much."

"From my question," Sora said, pulling himself up to a stand, and leaning forward to closely examine him.

Riku's jaw went slack, and he frowned. "How's that?"

"In my mind, I've won at least one race. I believe it as fact. Any person I magically conjured up would believe the same thing, right?"

"…What? All that does is prove that you're delusional, and that I'm good at running. How many movies have you been watching lately?"

"Are you arguing with someone who you've been trying to convince your existence to?"

"Fair."

Sora stared at him in wonder for a moment more, taking in the shape of his face, the length of his hair, his posture, clothing, and stature. It was all the same, just as he knew Riku to look. But the distinct difference couldn't be ignored. He was see-through, like light passing through tracing paper.

Where a lively glow once resided was now a silvery luminescence, so much like the moon. He was still Riku alright, but the evidence of life and energy and fullness that he exuded once before was gone. He was so much less than a shell of himself, now a transparent image, no more physical than the afterimage of a quickly moving object. He would be the marvel creation of any horror movie director, a ghost who took the exact likeness of the living actor.

The difference, Sora realized, as he felt a sickness rise in his stomach, was that this was no horror movie, and that this ghost was of his once real, living, breathing best friend.

Riku watched Sora watch him for a long moment, suddenly feeling badly. He should have thought of an easier way to break the news to him. Sora looked ashen, and on the verge of collapse. He wondered how he would have reacted to a ghost wandering into his home, demanding help. He supposed he wouldn't have appreciated it either.

"Listen Sora," he said softly, concentrating on Sora's shoulder as he placed his hand on it. "I—hey!"

In an instant, Sora had reached over to his bed to yank off the blanket that Riku had put there, and began whipping it through his transparent form…again.

"I can't believe you went and got yourself killed!" Sora yelled, the blanket passing through Riku's body as though it were through air. "What kind of idiot are you? I told you one of these days that all of your stupid fighting down at the stupid harbor would end up getting you into more trouble than you could handle!"

"Hey!" Riku shouted again, trying but failing to get Sora to stop waving the blanket. He couldn't feel it, but he did find the whole thing annoyingly disrespectful. "Cut it out!"

"No!" Sora yelled, this time interrupted by a poorly concealed sob. "I won't, because you're an unbelievable idiot! What am I supposed to tell Kairi and Roxas? What about the rest of our friends? What am _I_ supposed to do without a best friend anymore?"

Riku stopped protesting at this, his eyes locking on an errant tear that teetered on the edge of Sora's eyelid. He hadn't stopped to think that what he considered a hobby could possibly cause Sora so much unsettlement. He knew it was dangerous, and he knew that he could end up hurt—in fact he had, on many occasions—but Sora's whining hadn't meant much to him. He'd always thought he was merely being overprotective and smothering, like an over-invested parent. He hadn't stopped to think that all of this fighting would cause _both_ of them to lose a best friend.

"Sora," he said softly, through the sound of the waving blanket. His heart was heavy, and his body felt weighted even though he was hovering a few inches off the ground. He felt ill, and disgusted, and pained, all simultaneously swirling inside his being like an angry shiver of sharks. "I'm sorry."

Sora waved the blanket through him a few more times, then stopped to wipe the tears off of his cheek. He did so with a huff and threw the blanket back on the bed. Sending Riku an accusatory glare, he jabbed a finger in his direction. "I want to know how you got yourself into this mess and why you thought you had the right to drag yourself over to my apartment knowing I'd be furious with you!"

Riku swallowed and looked down at his feet, unsure of how to answer. "I don't know why I decided to come here. I just felt like I should."

"Well I hate to break it to you, but my first aid kit doesn't fix _death. _In case you haven't noticed, death medicine is not on sale at the grocery store!"

The statement made Riku feel like throwing up, even though he knew it wasn't possible. Not anymore. He tried to force his gaze back to Sora's angry one, but failed and ended up looking back at his shoes. "I know. I'm sorry. I just thought that maybe…you know, I'm not even sure what I was thinking."

"I believe that one," Sora spat, throwing himself on his bed, and patting the side for Riku to sit on. "Just…tell me what happened. Please give me a reason to not want to throw your ghostly-butt out of my house this instant."

"I'm not sure I'll be able to."

"I'll give you an opportunity to try."

Riku swallowed and hovered over to Sora's bed, surprised that he was able to sit without falling through the mattress. He looked for a spot on the floor to stare at, and then he began talking. He talked about how he had his first altercation with Seifer at the harbor a few days ago, how he had ignored what he thought to be an empty threat about returning the favor. He talked about Rai, and the others who had showed up at the harbor that night, how he had lost, and how his body was now curled up behind a collection of crates, hopefully beyond the discovery of any curious workers or animals.

"…And this is how I woke up," Riku concluded. "I was a ghost, and I saw myself just lying there like some kind of log."

"Hmph," Sora snorted "Appropriate analogy. A log is a dead tree branch. I _told _you this was going to happen if you kept getting yourself into fights like this. _Now_ what?"

Riku looked away again and rubbed his nose. "To be honest, I don't know. I just kind of hoped that you might have an idea."

Sora stared at Riku blankly, then narrowed his eyes. Holding up his hand, he gestured towards Riku's torso. "May I?"

"Eh? Uh…be my guest."

Sora swallowed hard before willing his hand forward. The limb tingled as it passed through Riku's chest without any resistance whatsoever. There was a distinct coldness where his skin met Riku's form, but otherwise there was no indication that he was even there except for the transparent, colorless image of Riku's body before him. Sora pulled his hand back and sighed. "I just pass right through you."

"As does everything else."

"Everything, huh?"

Riku nodded. "I discovered that if I concentrate, I can pick things up like I have a physical body," he peered up at Sora beneath his bangs. "Like blankets being hurled at me by scared-witless, questionably-sane people, but otherwise, I have no more presence than the light from the refrigerator."

Sora let out a long sigh. "I have no idea, although I can't say you don't deserve it."

"I know."

"And that this isn't a surprising end to a lifestyle both of us knew was a horrible idea."

"I know."

Sora glared at Riku.

Riku looked sorrowfully at the floor.

"Fine," he breathed. "I'll help you."

* * *

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Thanks for reading!


	7. Story

Late again...

**Chapter 7: Story**

* * *

"This is going to be bad, y'know?" Rai said nervously, pushing the tips of his fingers together as he walked alongside Seifer. Seifer, conversely was fuming, angered by the dread that was creeping up his spine.

Axel, Luxord, Lexaus, and Xaldin had left, meaning he had to handle speaking to his supervisor with Rai, which, as far as he was concerned, was just as bad as doing it alone.

"Maybe he'll be lenient on you, y'know? After all, you were provoked." Rai mused out loud. "Maybe you'll even get a reward for getting rid of a pest?"

Seifer kept his gaze even as he walked up the corridor, working tremendously hard to keep his temper at bay. It wasn't long after the small vessel reached headquarters, and as Seifer expected, the organization's supervisor found out in less than half an hour of their return.

He had been summoned to the leader's chambers, which Axel took great pleasure in informing him. He was in the process of making his way there, Rai in tow. "I used a company boat to deliver packages that weren't even ready to be shipped out until next week. I bribed the aid of four of our best men to help me stage a street fight. We killed him, and now there's a dead body lying at the harbor, poorly concealed by a few boxes. The combined hours and money wasted on this venture far exceeds what would be considered reasonable, and to top things off, _Axel_ was the one who told on me. Please Rai, tell me where you think there's room for a reward!"

He spat the last word so loudly that it rang down the corridors, frightening Rai into a crouched position against the walls. Apparently he had ended up losing his temper, and had stopped walking as well.

"Sorry, I was just trying to be optimistic," Rai muttered, eyes drifting to a throbbing vein in Seifer's forehead.

"Well your optimism isn't appreciated. Just keep quiet and let me think." He collected himself and resumed walking, satisfied when Rai's footsteps fell in line with his. "I have to make a good case for our supervisor, because if I don't, I can kiss my position here _and my life_ goodbye."

Rai's eyes widened. "You think he's going to…have you _executed_?"

Seifer shrugged. "Well no, but consider this: you and I aren't even full fledged members yet. You remember what happened to Demyx when he was still training?"

"Ah, you mean that guy who delivered a shipment to the wrong people? That was pretty stupid, y'know?"

"Yeah, I _know_," Seifer muttered. "He was stuck doing clean up for the Saïx, and you know how much of a mess _that_ guy makes when he gets a hit."

Rai wrinkled his nose. "You don't take me as the kind of person who would handle that well, y'know?"

"Of course I wouldn't! I'm suited for high profile missions like being a hit man, or reconnaissance. I'm destined for so much more than pickup and delivery." He rubbed his eyes with a gloved hand. "Now I'm doomed to be demoted to cleanup, and my full membership status will be postponed indefinitely! All because…" Suddenly, he turned to Rai, whose eyebrows lifted.

"All because of what?"

"Because of you!" Seifer shouted, grabbing Rai's collar and shaking him. "If you hadn't been so adamant about getting revenge for a black eye, I never would have been provoked to fight him, and subsequently kill him. This is all _your_ fault!"

Rai's face assumed the color of chalk, and his eyes widened. "It's my fault? But that's not fair!"

"Oh it's fair alright," Seifer said, shaking him again. He sighed and resumed his steady walk down the corridor. "I'm telling the supervisor all about how you made me kill him. Then he's sure to give me a lesser punishment, and I can be back on the road to getting the recognition for my criminal mastery. Let's go."

Rai looked uncertain as he began walking, but remained a few steps behind Seifer. "I don't think I want to go with you anymore."

"You don't have a choice," Seifer snorted. "You have to prove your case to the Supervisor. This _is_ your fault after all."

* * *

Riku's eyes had lit up when Sora offered to help, but he should have known that Sora wasn't going to be as cooperative as he had let on. He told him he'd have to wait until after he got off work the next afternoon in order to fully concentrate.

"I still have to make money," he had said in his scolding tone, the one that made Riku want to start another fight down at the harbor just out of spite. He remembered that he was at the mercy of Sora's generosity though, so he resisted the urge to float down to the place where all of this had started.

But then Sora went back to bed for the next couple of hours, and when Riku found that he was unable to sleep himself—it made sense; he was a ghost with no body that needed rest—he was starting to reconsider how he was going to keep himself entertained for the hours it took Sora to return home.

His anxiousness only increased as the sun rose and spilled light through the curtained windows. Sora had gone off to shower while he hovered about the living room, contemplating the likelihood of keeping himself out of trouble, and more importantly, _sane_ while he milled about the house with nothing to do.

Sora emerged just as Riku mulled this over and didn't look pleased. He looked as though he was hoping that Riku wouldn't be there the next morning, and that everything from the night before really was an elaborate dream.

No such luck. Riku was hovering there, ghostly and transparent.

"Alright," Sora said running a towel through his hair. "I need you to stay put while I get to work. I'd tell you not to touch anything, but given the circumstance, that's kind of unnecessary."

Riku made a face at him. It didn't seem like the appropriate time to be making light of his unfortunate circumstance. Sora ignored him. "You already know where everything is since you've crashed here enough times. I'll be back this evening."

Riku folded his arms. "Are you really going to make me stay here all afternoon? It's going to be completely boring."

"What do you usually do during this time of day?"

"Sleep!"

"Well go pretend to do that."

Riku made another face at him. "I can't just wander around all day. I'll go crazy."

Sora narrowed his eyes. "Don't you think you've had enough excitement for one lifetime? Oh wait, you're—"

"I get it," Riku muttered, folding his arms. "But that's how I got into this mess in the first place. I was bored. Imagine what would happen if I was bored enough to get myself killed a second time. You should be more sympathetic."

"And you should be more considerate, but it looks like neither of us are going to be winning any prizes for thoughtfulness, now are we? You keep yourself here where it's safe, while I go to work and worry about how to fix your problem."

"But what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Sora fumed, walking over to the door to retrieve his shoes. "You're a ghost now. Experiment."

"I'd rather not get too comfortable in this state, if it's all the same to you. I much preferred having my feet touch the ground…and having a circulatory system."

"I did too," Sora said, refusing to look at him. "Which is why I think you should stay here, out of trouble, and away from people." He felt his eyes burn, and forced himself to stay focused. If he started getting weepy now, Riku would tease him, and the last thing he needed was a reason to leave Riku to wallow in his own well-deserved misery. "There's a sizeable stack of comic books for you to read in the kitchen, and if you get tired of that, the cookie jar is full of toys for you to play with."

"What am I, eight? And why are there toys in the _cookie_ jar?"

"You're actually seven, and I don't have any cookies to put in there." Sora frowned at him and gripped the doorknob. "I mean it. Stay here out of trouble. If I find out you've left, and got yourself into even more mischief, you'll have to seek shelter from my wrath."

Riku's lip twitched into a grin, but he nodded in spite of how insulted he was at the prospect of having to entertain himself with tattered comic books, and toys meant for someone a third of his age.

Sora took a final moment to glare at him before slipping out the door and locking it behind him, as if it would keep Riku from slipping through.

Riku stared at the door for a long moment, then glanced over at the kitchen where the stacks and stacks of rubbish were shoved; buried underneath were supposed to be enough comic books to keep him entertained for an entire day.

Riku pursed his lips and considered the comic books, then he adjusted his gaze back to the door. Really, if he just stepped out for a little while, just to get the anxious jitters out of his weightless limbs, and cast a little sunlight through his transparent body, then maybe he would be able to focus better on solving his current predicament. Besides, he reasoned, if Sora had suggested that he experiment with his new state, and while he had at first been against getting too familiar with his new body, if such an argument allowed him the loophole he needed to escape, then so be it. Grinning triumphantly, he waited a few moments to make sure Sora had indeed left the premises, and pushed himself through the door.

The sun was indeed pleasant, and he was pleased to see that it didn't set him on fire, or force him through some dark portal, as he belatedly thought it might. It seemed as though even if he was now some kind of wayward waif, at the very least he wasn't some kind of demon. He looked skyward towards the tops of the trees, and then at the ground towards the grass and dirt. He had kind of expected things to look different, maybe even see things in a different tint, given his own washed out appearance, but everything remained the same.

He looked around for a few more moments, then decided that standing around was critically the same as standing around indoors, and was immediately on the hunt for something else to do. Sitting around like some kind of animal didn't suit his fancy in the slightest.

Then a thought struck him.

Sora was probably going to go to work, then croon to Kairi and Roxas all about how he had obtained a new pet ghost. Then, while all of them were sitting around making fun of his unfortunate position, Riku's body would rot at the harbor, and nothing would get fixed. Riku would be the first to admit that all of this might have been his fault, but he wouldn't stand for anyone _else_—other than Sora—to know that. Maybe if he just poked his head into the café for a few minutes, just to check in and see what kind of discussions were going on, he would be able to prevent the spread of any possible misconceptions.

Another, less mischievous thought crossed his mind, and he wished that it hadn't. He was a ghost now, but there were no guarantees about his continued existence as one. He hadn't seen any other apparitions in the area, a good indication that his time might be limited. If it was…if he and Sora couldn't come up with a solution to restore him back to the world of the living, then each precious moment he had was well worth spending it with people he liked. He couldn't stand the thought of wasting the last of his existence in the front lawn of Sora's apartment.

The thought made his eyes burn, so he immediately stopped the train of thought and focused on causing trouble. He was good at that.

If he was going to make the trip all the way to _The Filter, _he had to remember to be careful. He wasn't planning on doing much talking to Sora, but if Sora happened to come home and hear his neighbors shrieking about seeing a ghost wandering around, then Sora's wrath would be unleashed, and even transparency wouldn't be able to save him. He gritted his teeth, making absolutely sure that it was worth risking a second death for an entertaining afternoon.

It was.

A quick survey of the nearby area produced no people, so he scampered down the walkway, towards Sora's place of employment.

* * *

Sora sucked in a deep breath before pushing the door open to _The Filter._ His head was throbbing from a headache that had sprung the moment he had first laid eyes on Riku that morning, and he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before either. He couldn't imagine that he looked very pleasant, so he thought it might be best if he voluntarily confined himself to the back rooms for the day. The fewer people to lay eyes on his sunken face and dark eyes, the better chance he had of making it through work without snapping at anyone, or worse, revealing what was giving him so much grief to begin with.

The bell rang above his head as he entered the cafe, and he offered a half hearted nod to Kairi before disappearing to the back room to retrieve his apron and some semblance of a pleasant expression.

He should have known better.

Wincing as he heard the door swing open again behind him, he knew before he even turned around that Kairi would be there, hands on her hips, and left eyebrow quirked upward questioningly. She was always able to pick up on things that were amiss, especially when they concerned him, and especially when he was trying to hide it.

"You alright today, Sora?" She said, concern dripping from her voice. Sora knew better though. Behind the worry and compassion drenching the words, there was a tenacious ferocity hidden. She wasn't going to let him escape the following interrogation without the truth, or at least a creative and realistic lie. Kairi could always read him like an open book—highlighted and stamped out in bold. If she wanted to, she could weave every negative thought he had ever held since birth out of him as easily as the wind pulls sound from a wind chime, so unless he could think of something quickly, he was doomed.

He cleared his throat and threw his apron over his head. He practiced grinning a few times before turning around, then addressed Kairi with the enthusiasm he should have thought to use earlier. "Hey Kairi," he said a little too loudly. "What's up?"

Her eyebrow disappeared behind her reddish brown bangs as the arch steepened. "Nothing. Eh, what's up with you?"

"Nothing," Sora said and brushed past her, careful to remain smiling. "Just getting ready. Full house this morning?"

"Not really." She eyed him warily, and followed him as he walked through the door again to the counter. She was watching his back as he idly moved things about, shuffled around the tip jar, and played with the receipt paper.

Kairi pursed her lips. "You alright? You seem like you're in a weird mood this morning."

Sora swallowed hard, and ran a hand through his hair. If he could give anything, he would make himself less easy to read. Consciously adjusting his face so that he smiled more naturally, he turned toward her and made a noise in the back of his throat that he _hoped_ sounded like a scoff. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay," he said matter-of-fact. "Why do you ask?"

Kairi tilted her head to the side, an indication that she _knew_ something was wrong, and that Sora was going to have an impossible time trying to convince her otherwise. "Well, for starters, you look a little bit like you're having a nervous breakdown, but your face is trying to convince the rest of you—and _me_—that you're not."

Sora tossed his head back and laughed, unnerved at how close she so quickly hit the nail on the head. He may have been coming apart at the seams, but he was determined to keep as much of that to himself as possible. "Nervous breakdown? That's absurd. I'm fine."

Kairi rolled her eyes at him. "You're hardly convincing. You can't hide anything from me, Sora."

"I'm not hiding anything." Sora said, holding his hands up in defense. "I'm just tired today."

"Who's hiding?" A familiar voice filled Sora's ears, and he felt his stomach drop, and an icy chill sweep through his body.

Roxas had shown up.

"Sora is," Kairi said folding her arms. "So to speak." She moved to the side so that Roxas could slip behind the counter to retrieve his own apron, but as far as Sora was concerned, he was merely preparing to co-interrogate him.

"What are you hiding form?"

"Nothing."

"Me."

"No I'm not!"

"Then tell me what's wrong!"

Roxas shrugged himself into his apron quickly, then dashed back to Kairi's side with a smug grin across his face. "You are _not_ about to leave me out of a good story, are you?"

Sora slapped a hand over his face and dragged it down his chin. "There is no story to tell."

"There is if you're hiding something."

"I'm not hiding anything!"

Roxas looked at an increasingly panicked Sora, and Kairi who drummed her fingers across her upper arm.

"Yeah, I believe her."

"Of course you do."

"Only because she's usually right."

"Well, she isn't this time. There's a first time for everything."

"Not when it comes to Kairi," Roxas said leaning against the counter, patting a sympathetic hand on Sora's shoulder. "Sometimes it's better to admit defeat, just in case your enemy is a sadist and doesn't believe in a merciful, bloodless resolution."

"What are you talking about?"

Roxas placed a hand on Sora's head and slowly turned it to meet Kairi's eyes. "She's mere seconds from feeding you to the lions. Might as well come clean. Don't worry, I'm here for you."

Kairi rolled her eyes and swatted Roxas on the shoulder. "I am not. I'm just worried, that's all. You should have seen Sora when he walked in this morning. He looked like death."

"Nah, that's not really necessary." Roxas said, eyeing Sora. "He still looks like death, so I get the picture."

"Cut it out!" Sora said. "And comments on my appearance are _really_ going to make me feel better."

"So there _is_ something wrong," Roxas pointed out, and Sora found himself unable to respond. He and Kairi—and Riku for that matter—were all too good at making him uncomfortable, as well as bringing out his how unfortunately honest he was. If he didn't think it would drive him mad, he might consider hanging out with Riku and Roxas more often, in hopes that their emotional control would rub off.

Instead he stood there staring at both Roxas and Kairi with his mouth hanging open; his hopes of victory dashed against the ground, crumbled around his feet like the crumbs from the cookies behind the glass.

Kairi recognized her victory, but in true Kairi form, she kept her smile mild, and her eyes warm and encouraging. Roxas however, was not so kind to Sora's pride and wore the grin as though he had just marched through a finish line at an athletic event.

"We've got a few minutes until Cid shows up," he said, looking for a place to sit down. "If you hurry through the story without trying to convince us that you're _not_ hiding something, I may be able to get a few laughs in while Kairi tries to blubber out one of her solutions."

Sora groaned, and wished that Cid would show up unceremoniously early to drag him out of this misery. The older man was nowhere in sight, and so Sora was forced to tackle both Roxas and Kairi by himself. He cleared his throat and tried to come up with a suitable lie, one he could tell with little hope of the truth accidentally slipping through.

He couldn't tell them that Riku had died.

He swallowed hard at the memory of Riku's incredibly blunt tale about his own death, and how he had done exactly what Sora said was going to happen and gotten himself into more trouble than he could handle.

Aside from getting over _that _hurdle, how could he tell them that Riku had actually left his physical body and was now floating around his apartment reading old comic books while Sora worked and figured out how to get him back into his body (assuming of course it was even possible at this point).

A lie or two would definitely be better than that.

He swallowed again, and tried to push a grin on his tired face. "I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night, that's all."

"Are you stressed out?"

"Yeah," he breathed. So far he didn't have to do much lying. Riku—true to form—never really showed up at the most opportune times of the evening, and having a best friend somehow turned into a ghost wasn't exactly akin to a relaxing summer vacation. "I've just got a lot on my mind."

"Did you talk to Riku?"

"…Yeah," he said slowly. "More or less."

"You don't have any bruises, so obviously he didn't try to punch you. What else could you possibly be worried about?"

"Eh…" Sora racked his brain for anything that could possibly cling onto in order to dance around the _real_ problem. "I'm not worried that he's going to hit me or anything. Besides, who said it was about Riku anyway?"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "You just did. Denial is like telling us point blank. Out with it."

"Roxas, just let him talk. It's obviously not so easy to get out, am I right?"

Sora really wanted to point out that Kairi had _no idea_ how hard. "Well, you know how he likes to go down to the harbor and cause all of those problems every night."

Kairi put her hands up to her mouth. "Don't tell me something bad happened. Is he okay?"

"Yes, yes, he's fine. Sort of." Sora said quickly, awkwardly. "It's just that…ugh, this is complicated."

Roxas gripped the counter, and pushed himself on top of it, swinging his legs back and forth like a child at a candy store. "Say no more, Sora. I know _exactly_ what happened!"

"You do?"

"Yup. I can tell just by looking at you. Something horrible has happened. Something _wonderfully_ horrible."

"Somehow I think you're going to be wrong," Kairi muttered. "And get off the counter."

"Wait, just hear me out." Roxas started, rubbing his hands together and kicking his legs even faster."Riku went down at the harbor last night and got into a brawl."

"That's what I just said."

"And he probably crashed at your house for the night, too. I bet he went straight to your apartment for some of your canned vegetables or whatever. Then, you both went to sleep thinking that everything was over."

"Okay…"

"But then!" Roxas shouted, making Kairi jump, and Sora wish that he was anywhere else in the world. "Disaster struck."

"Disaster?"

"Yes, disaster. Riku may have beaten up those chumps down at the harbor, but he didn't realize that _those_ people were merely the pawns to an even greater entity of bad guys. The sentries, if you will. A far greater evil lurked just beyond the tide!"

Kairi pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "You've been watching too many movies. And they're obviously movies, because you clearly don't read."

Sora, however, felt his breath leave him and his knees weaken at the accuracy of what Roxas was saying. Kairi was right, this whole thing was like something straight out of a horror movie, and Sora just wished it would end already.

Roxas pressed forward, ignoring Kairi and taking delight in the pained expression on Sora's face. "While you two were sleeping in your cozy little apartment, a storm was brewing. Riku should have finished off the sentries, tossed their bodies in the harbor and walked away, but no. He left them breathing, left them capable of sending a distress message to headquarters."

Sora's mouth hung open. "What…what _are _you?"

Roxas' eyes lit up brighter than spotlights. "I'm right, aren't I?!"

Kair's eyebrow lifted. "He is?"

"No! I mean…no. He's not!"

"Too late! I've already received confirmation!" Roxas laughed. "Wait, now let me get to the end. This is seriously the best day ever!"

Sora wanted to crawl into a corner and fall into a deep, dark hole.

"Anyway, the sentries sent a distress signal to headquarters, and they're coming back…for…"

"For?"

"For…_you!_"

Sora's jaw hung open even farther, this time with confusion. "They're coming for me?"

"Yes. They followed Riku to your apartment, thinking that your home was his home. Now you're both caught up in an underground crime league, with no hope of escape except by the power of your own fists and a dim promise of a brighter tomorrow!"

Sora stared at him silently. Roxas had gotten so worked up that he was panting, and Kairi's gaze was darting back and forth between them. That last part was distinctly incorrect, but all things considered, the truth would have been a far worse conclusion. Sora supposed that if he let Roxas make up what had happened instead of risking making up something himself, he could avoid accidentally telling the truth.

Things had actually turned out even better than expected.

"You're absolutely right," Sora said simply, making Roxas punch a fist into the air, and Kairi, stare at him incredulously. "How did you ever guess?"

"I told you I knew what I was talking about. You guys need to start listening to me more."

"I'm completely impressed," Sora said, clapping his hands together. "I should have known better than to try and hide things from you guys."

"I'm pretty sharp!" Roxas laughed, then jumped off the counter, patting Sora on the shoulder. "Man, I am jealous. Why do you get to have all the fun?"

Kairi looked skeptically at Sora. "Sora, is this really true?"

"Every word. People are really after me." He put his hands on Kairi's shoulders for emphasis. "I have no idea what I'm going to do. Leave it to Riku to drag the lowest of the low from the harbor. Now he and I have to figure out how to get them away from us so that I'll once again feel safe going to my house."

Roxas nodded enthusiastically. "I know what you mean. You never know with those types. One minute you could be walking home, and the next, you're being dragged away in a body bag. You must be terrified."

Kairi looked ill, and Sora—gladly—had Roxas to thank for that. If this story would satiate Kairi's questioning, and Roxas' need for a good show, he was certain he would be able to dedicate more time to concentrating on the real problem, and getting his best friend back into his body. "What should I do?'

"Well, the important thing is to stay calm," Kairi tried, sounding drained. "I'm kind of at a loss here. People are really, really after you?"

"Yes," Sora said pointedly. "I'm a marked man."

"This is so cool!" Roxas cheered.

Sora nodded, trying hard to convey nonexistent fear for his own life, and then rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand to finish the performance off. "Listen, I really appreciate your support, guys. We really need to get to work before Cid shows up, though."

"Ugh, and this was getting so good. This is almost worth getting fired over."

"Not for me," Sora wailed. "I need to continue to make money, especially if these people chasing me are willing to be bought off."

"Sora, you're a genius. I'll let you clean up all the napkins this afternoon, if it'll help."

"…Eh, thanks."

Kairi eyed him again before wandering off to the back of the cafe, while Roxas grabbed a handful of sugar packets and began tossing them into the holders as though he were assassinating invisible enemies with throwing stars.

Sora had to hand it to himself. This was a pretty impressive feat if he said so himself. Now he could work, try and work through some kind of plan, and get back to Riku in his apartment without dealing with much more meddling from his well-meaning friends. He put his hands on his hips, and sighed contentedly, before hunting around for a broom.

He gripped a nearby broom and dustpan, then began shoveling napkins and other debris into it, his heart fluttering with lightness that he hadn't felt since before Riku had shown up on his doorstep. He almost felt like whistling, if it hadn't been against Cid's stringent rules.

Then suddenly, his heart was knocked out of the sky by a flaming meteorite just sneaking outside beneath the window, slamming it back down into his chest where it shattered into a thousand unsalvageable pieces.

That meteorite was transparent.

It was weightless.

And it looked a lot like his recently friend-turned-ghost who was supposed to be back in his apartment.


	8. Hearing

**Chapter 8: Hearing**

* * *

Seifer groaned inwardly as he stood outside the door of his supervisor, blood running cold and fast through his veins. With any luck he would sustain a heart attack and maybe, just maybe get away from his supervisor's wrath, provided of course, that he was feeling merciful today.

Rai was standing next to him, jabbering like a child, biting his nails, and looking back and forth between the door and the end of the long hallway from which they had come. Seifer had invested far too much energy into pinning the blame on Rai, so he fixed a glare on his accomplice just in case he decided to make a dash for the exit.

To make matters even worse, Axel was somewhere inside their supervisor's chamber, probably making small talk, revealing more information about what had happened at the harbor, or the most likely occurrence, making outlandish suggestions and complaints in order to satisfactorily agitate him before Seifer's own hearing.

Axel was crafty and snide, and it bothered him to no end that no matter how much he wished it, Axel's position was as sturdy as their supervisor's, if only because he was too much of a loose cannon to be left to wander free.

Unlike Seifer.

The fate of his own position was about to be revealed in a few steadily decreasing minutes.

Seifer grunted and balled a fist, wondering how in his two years of working for The Organization he had managed to make such a mistake. He was strong, confident, capable and a hard worker. He could command ranks better than most, and had the resolve of steel. Sure, he may have had a bit of a temper problem, and maybe he wasn't the _easiest_ to get along with, but no one in The Organization was particularly kind hearted or pleasant. It was what made them all work so well together.

But here he was, sniveling behind the door of their supervisor like a child ready to be scolded.

Rai looked at him mid nail-bite, and offered him a pitiful whimper that made Seifer want to kick him.

"Seifer," he said quietly, folding his hands and trying his hardest to face him. "What kind of trouble do you think we're going to be in?"

"More than what we want, I'd imagine."

"But I don't want to be in _any _trouble, y'know?" Seifer muttered, turning back to the door, hanging his head in shame.

"Then I'm not wrong, now am I? Now quit whining. It's driving me crazy."

"I can't help it," Rai sniffed. "I'm just really worried."

"Well, you should be. This _is_ your fault after all."

"Are you really going to tell _him _that?" Rai said quietly. "We've been through so much together, you and me. I haven't left your side, no matter what it is you do, right from when we decided to join together. Remember that time that you borrowed one of Larxene's kunai without asking, and I begged her not to cut your hands off? I stood by you, y'know? Would you really do this to me?"

Seifer considered this for a moment, and regarded Rai with an upturned eyebrow. It was true. He had gotten into a fair number of _incidents_ with the other members of The Organization, usually for the benefit of adding ease to the tasks that their supervisor had assigned to them and worth the anger and hurt feelings in the long run. Rai had usually been the sacrifice, but when he did anger one of the more violent members of The Organization, Rai _did _stick by his side when they threatened to dismember, or kill him.

Rai had also helped him hide the body that he was about to be held accountable for, too.

Even though he decided that despite all of the help Rai had offered him throughout the years was still not enough to keep him from beneath the bus he was going to throw him under, Seifer resigned to at least feel badly about it, and maybe would think about being kinder to him in the future.

"Think about it this way," Seifer offered, outstretching a hand to emphasize the point he was about to make. "When people do bad things and then lie about it, they feel guilty, right?"

"Right."

"And guilt leads to sleeplessness, ulcers, and headaches."

"Okay…?"

Seifer nodded. "So don't think of this as me tattling on you. Think of this as me saving you from sleeplessness, ulcers, and headaches."

"But Seifer," Rai protested, the color draining out of his face. "I don't feel guilty!"

"And you have _me _to thank for that, now don't you?"

Rai opened his mouth to protest, but before he could get a word out, the door to their supervisor's chambers opened, and out strolled Axel, who grinned like a cat with his cream. "Evening, boys."

"It's actually morning. Are you that stupid?" Seifer spat, folding his arms.

"Is it?"Axel asked, tipping his head to the side with a finger on his chin. "I hadn't noticed. It's been such a long night and all. My, how time flies when you're murdering people."

"I didn't—" Seifer realized he was yelling, and quickly quieted himself. "I didn't _murder_ anyone. I was involved in the accidental and untimely termination of a nameless nobody that everyone could easily forget about if _you_ wouldn't keep reminding them."

"Well, I'm glad you think so," Axel said laughing in a way that made Seifer want to punch him right in the stomach. "Maybe you can convince _him_," he jabbed a thumb at the door, "that your nameless nobody is such a petty matter."

Rai gulped and looked up at Axel with drooping eyes. "Is he angry?"

Axel leaned down and met his gaze, lips curling over his teeth in a grin. "He's _furious._"

Seifer snorted, refusing to be rattled by Axel's obvious scare tactics. He didn't do anything wrong. Axel _and_ Lexaus, _and_ Luxord _and _Xaldin, as well as a fair number of the other members of The Organization had disposed of dozens of people, all of which deserved it. They ran a tight business dealing, and if anyone stepped in their way or complicated a business transaction, they were well within their rights to dispose of them. And _this_ was coming from direct orders of their supervisor. Not everyone could deal with The Organization and live. That was what made them so successful.

Sure, he may have accidentally killed that guy out of rage, spite and other emotions that were pretty silly in hindsight, but the fact of the matter was that the kid angered one of the henchmen of one of the most dangerous people the world had ever known, and Seifer was going to stick to that—as well as Rai's instigation of the whole matter—to save himself.

He turned his nose up at Axel and shoved past him, taking great pleasure in the grunt of pain that resulted in him knocking Axel's bony elbow into Rai, and pushed open the door to their supervisor's chambers.

Rai's jaw dropped, and his eyes bulged out of his head as he watched the door swing open, revealing the long stretch of mauve carpeting ending abruptly at a tall, sturdy desk. Their supervisor was seated in a chair a few meters away, his face obscured by the shadows cast over him in the dark room. Rai reached for the cuff of Seifer's shirt as if to cling onto it for safety, but Seifer was already several steps ahead.

"Have fun," Axel said pleasantly. He then closed the door behind him, leaving Rai and Seifer at the mercy of the man at the forefront of The Organization.

As soon as Axel was out of view, Seifer fully felt the gravity of the situation before him.

He was uncomfortable about how he was standing, and he fidgeted on the carpeting, wondering how many people had wept tears on it before him. The office wasn't meant to give its visitors a welcome feeling.

It was scarcely decorated except for a few small black bookshelves and tables, adorned with equally dark potted plants. The windows were obscured by heavy wool drapes in a similar color to the carpet, tied together with ivory ropes that seemed oddly bright given the shadows that lined the walls. There was a clock ticking somewhere in the room, a grin reminder that his time with The Organization might be short lived. Seifer looked onward though, and his eyes rose to the tall black desk, and the nameplate that rested at the edge of it.

Xemnas.

Seifer swallowed hard and tried to stand up straight, but it was difficult to do so when he couldn't see Xemnas's face to gage his reaction to his entrance. He decided that he would try his best anyway, and folded his hands politely as he cleared his throat.

"Ah, hello sir." He muttered. "I'm sorry to disturb you this morning."

Xemnas remained silent, hands folded beneath his chin, eyes piercing the shadows that obscured his face. They were blank and emotionless.

It was Rai's turn to offer a greeting, and he stammered through one quickly.

Xemnas's position remained the same.

Seifer cleared his throat and tried again. "Xemnas sir, I'm not sure how you're feeling, but I can't imagine that Axel told you anything with any degree of accuracy. We all know how he likes to exaggerate."

"Right," Rai seconded, nodding his head enthusiastically. "He does tend to exaggerate, y'know?"

"Anyway," Seifer continued, "I'm sure you have an idea of the current state of things, but I think that I can shed some light on what really happened, and furthermore who is actually responsible."

Rai made a shrill whining sound as he sent a panicked glance at Seifer. "And maybe you can see why this individual felt it was necessary to go to such extreme measures, and lighten his punishment."

"Or you could—"

Xemnas finally moved, this time to lace his fingers together in front of him. Seifer immediately closed his mouth, and Rai continued to keen.

"Seifer," he said quietly, evenly. It was enough to make the hairs at the base of his neck stand on end, and make his blood run cold in his body. He wished that 'Seifer' wasn't _his _name any more. "That sounds like a grand idea. Why don't you explain to me exactly what happened?"

Seifer took a steadying breath and forbade himself from shaking in front of his supervisor, not when he had to prove his innocence and make it out of the office with his job and his limbs intact. "Yes sir. I would be glad to."

Xemnas shifted his hands again, and Seifer felt his nerves leave him. "Good. Because I should hope that there are significant differences between your story, and the one Axel has told me."

Seifer swallowed, and felt his heart steadily plunge towards his stomach. Rai was already visibly shaken; he was too far gone to request assistance from at this point. He was as good as being alone in the office. He threw together a string of words in his mind that sound at least somewhat eloquent and hopefully void of self-incrimination, and began. "Well sir, I think I should start at the beginning."

"Please do."

"Right." He nodded and forced his lips to remain steady. "It all started the other day when Rai and I were finishing up a delivery you asked us to make at the harbor on Destiny Islands. We were talking and wrapping up matters when Rai spotted someone he thought looked familiar."

Xemnas listened silently, and Seifer took a moment to spare a glance at Rai. He had been so petrified of Xemnas that he looked as though he wouldn't be able to process a word he said. Seifer could have made up something about Rai turning into a werewolf and feasting on the guy down at the harbor and he wouldn't have noticed. He kept that thought in mind.

"Anyway," Seifer continued. "I was ready to leave, since I remember how you always tell us to make the deliveries as brief and clean as possible, but Rai was absolutely positive that the guy was the one who—"

"Riku."

Seifer balked at the sudden interruption. "I'm sorry sir?"

"Riku," Xemnas repeated, eyes motionless. "The person you're referring to is named Riku."

A sudden terror filled Seifer's mind as he wondered how on earth Xemnas had managed to obtain a name that he himself didn't even know, but he tucked the thought away for fear of not being able to continue. "Right, sir. Riku."

"Please continue."

"Absolutely. Well, as I was saying, Rai here recognized Riku and recalled a scuffle the two of them had gotten into a while ago. The guy—er, Riku, was apparently able to score a few solid punches to Rai's face, and Rai was determined to seek vengeance."

He spared another glance at the petrified Rai, and noticed with some relief that he was still rendered motionless. Had he not been standing, Seifer could have made a pretty solid argument that he had gone comatose.

"I told him it was a bad idea, but Rai had already started forth with the onslaught, and I had no choice but to follow, as a comrade should." Seifer went on to explain how Riku had scoffed at the might of The Organization, and how even though Seifer himself thought that the jibes were pretty inconsequential, Rai was determined to seek vengeance on Xemnas's glorious name. Thus, the ranks were called and the onslaught commenced, silencing Riku into eternity, an outcome that none of them had wanted, but was none the less unavoidable.

"And that's how it happened," Seifer finished. "On the bright side, the materials for the Setzer collaboration have been delivered a week early." He may have embellished things a bit, but he was certain that Axel had done a fair amount of warping of the truth, too. If Axel could lie, then so could he, especially if it meant the difference between him living to see another day or not.

Xemnas watched him quietly, folded hands still, golden eyes unblinking. Time stood still for Seifer, and he wondered if he had heard a word of his tale, or if he just forced him into discussion for formality's sake. For all he knew, his punishment had already been decided, and Xemnas was just letting him blather on for amusement purposes. Panic welled up inside him, but before he could launch into an outburst of why his life should be spared, Xemnas spoke in his quiet yet powerful voice.

"Please offer clarification if you deem it necessary from my conclusion, but what I'm gathering from your story is that the death of this gentleman is _Rai's_ fault."

Seifer stole another glance at the stone faced Rai, then shrugged as innocently as he could. "Sir, I would never point the finger entirely in one man's direction, after all Lexaus was the one who held him up, Axel punched him, Xaldin kicked him, and Luxord was involved in multiple acts of violence, but if I were absolutely forced to assign blame to one individual for this whole deeply unfortunate circumstance, I think it might be wise to consider Rai as a potential candidate."

Xemnas was quiet again, and Seifer felt his coat stick to his back from the cold sweat that had been dripping there. Maybe he didn't need to be punished at all for killing Riku; this meeting was adding more than enough stress to his weary mind. He would be lucky if he would ever be able to forget the piercing look in Xemnas's eyes, or the way he managed to stay hidden beneath the shadows and still convey such a horrifying presence.

"Who then," Xemnas said evenly, "laid the killing hand?"

"That's really difficult to say, sir." Seifer said quickly. "There were so many punches being thrown, kicks landing…it could have been anyone."

"Please offer your most educated guess."

"Well…eh…." He scratched the back of his head and pulled at the neck of his coat. "It wasn't a punch or anything, but rather, a misunderstanding. You see, when I saw him there…Riku, that is…cursing your name like the filth that he is, I was overcome with such blind rage that I might have overlooked the placement of my hand."

"Referring to the strangulation?"

"Really more of an accidental denial of air via my fist, but I don't think things such as technicalities are important, especially considering that Rai was the one who threw the first punch."

"So you say you were in a blind rage and couldn't help but strangle him?"

"Yes, sir. You see, I couldn't bear listening to him speaking of you so callously, so I completely forgot where I was and what was happening. When I came to, poor Riku had passed out. I'm still not certain at this very moment how my hand wound up around his throat."

Xemnas shifted again, this time to lean forward, revealing his crown of silvery hair and bronze skin. The line of his lips was thin, the arch in his eyebrows neutral. Seifer wished that he had stayed buried beneath the shadows, because now that he could see his face, and the potential expressions that would cross it, he wasn't sure how successful he would be at lying.

"Your story deeply interests me, Seifer," he said with an edge to his voice that made Seifer unbearably uncomfortable. "In particular, I'm in awe at your ability to remember the incident with such clarity and detail, despite your self-admitted lapse in consciousness when you strangled this boy in an obscure warehouse at a harbor in the middle of the night. You were so clear in your storytelling that it might, if one weren't paying close enough attention, appear as though it were largely fabricated."

Xemnas leaned forward farther, the gold of his eyes starting to burn slightly around the edges. "But I know that none of my sentries would ever attempt to fabricate a story of such importance in front of me; not you, not Axel, not anyone, and for this reason, I should commend you for your ability to retain such an accurate memory despite such a critical atmosphere, correct?"

"Sir?" Seifer's voice came out in little more than a sorrowful whimper, and he hated himself for it. If Riku were still alive, he would have gone back and killed him for making him endure such trauma.

Xemnas leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes, once again obscured by the shadows. "I am going to go ahead and take your silence as an affirmation, knowing full well that I do not take kindly to false statements, Seifer."

"Well, there may be a few things that I might have forgotten. As you mentioned, things were rather intense."

"You and Axel both seem to have the uncanny ability to forget certain crucial elements of very important events. This is through no fault of your own, I'm sure."

"Sir."

Xemnas sighed and opened his eyes, this time rolling them to the ceiling as though he were trying to summon patience from the sky. "To be perfectly honest with you, Seifer, I have seen far more grievous errors from henchmen past, and while the death of this boy is incredibly inconvenient, I would be a dishonest man indeed if I didn't admit that others have suffered similar fates for far lesser crimes at the hand of our organization."

Hope lit up in Seifer's heart, and he felt his hands trembling in anticipation. Perhaps his small white lies had worked, and perhaps Xemnas was going to be forgiving, at the very least sparing him from cleanup duty with Demyx.

"However," Xemnas continued, divesting Seifer's hope from his body. "I cannot ignore the time, manpower, and funds you—or rather _Rai_—wasted on this misguided, futile venture, nor can I rest well knowing that an innocent person has been murdered without proof of the crimes you say he's committed."

"But sir, I told you, he was—"

"Now is _not_ the time to highlight some of the ambiguous 'facts' of your story, Seifer. Now is the time to listen."

"Yes sir."

Xemnas sighed and rubbed his hand over his forehead and sighed deeply. "How long has he been dead?"

"It happened last night. Less than a day."

"And his body?"

"Uh, time was not on our side last night, Sir. Axel threatened to strand Rai and me, so—"

"_Where _is his body, Seifer?"

Seifer gulped. "We put it behind some crates in the warehouse."

Xemnas took a deep breath then let it out slowly. "There are a few…_liberties_ that are allotted to these kinds of mistakes, especially if haste is utilized."

Seifer shifted his weight onto his other foot. "I'm not sure what you mean, sir."

"I mean that there is a chance that we can correct your wrongdoing, provided of course all of the necessary tools are available."

"Sir?"

"You're lucky," Xemnas said standing up from the table. "Saïx, if you remember, has caused quite a number of untimely deaths with is self control…eh…difficulties. If not for the tricks I've learned from his mistakes, you'd have much more to fear than demotion."

Seifer nodded and watched in awe as Xemnas's true height was revealed. He strolled from behind the table and past him to the door, and opened it with one hand.

Axel stumbled into the door frame and grinned before dashing off down the hallway, presumably to his room.

Xemnas ignored him and turned to look at Seifer over his shoulder. "Collect Rai and meet me at the port in thirty minutes."

"Yes Sir!" Seifer grinned, glee bursting through his voice. He had managed to escape severe punishment, and it looked as though Xemnas had a method to rectify this problem in the first place. It was as if his slate was wiped clean, and as far as he was concerned, by the end of the day he could possibly pretend that none of this had ever happened.

"Oh and Seifer," Xemnas said before disappearing completely through the threshold. "There is someone else you should enlist before our meeting."

"Who, sir?"

"Axel. Somehow I think that the both of you seeking a resolution to this unfortunate incident would be most fitting."

The door closed behind him, and Seifer was left worried and confused with no one but a petrified Rai to see him fall to the floor in emotional defeat.

* * *

Thank you for reading. Please offer feedback if you have a moment.


	9. Haunted

Many thanks for the reviews, everyone! :)

**Chapter 9: Haunted**

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Sora wanted to cry.

He had finally gotten a taste of what true happiness could look like in the midst of all of the bad news he had received lately, and now everything had gone to ruin.

In under five minutes.

Sora peered out the window he was sweeping next to, and stared.

Sure enough, Riku was there, his ghostly body sneaking beneath the windows to keep from being seen. Sora wasn't sure how he managed to get to the café without avoiding detection, but one look at the way his leg was passing through a nearby coil of a watering hose answered his question for him. Riku had probably ducked through trees, bushes and other obstructions all the way here; sliding around objects, and subsequently, the eyes of others like some kind of secret agent.

On top of being utterly mystified as to how so much stress could befall him so quickly, Sora was furious. This wasn't some kind of game to him. His best friend was _dead_, his body somewhere down at the harbor probably rotting to an unrecognizable mess at this point. And what was Riku doing? He was playing; enjoying his time as a ghost as if this was some kind of gift, and Sora _wasn't_ going out of his mind with worry.

Gripping the broom until his knuckles turned white, he watched with growing agitation. Who did Riku think he was? What would happen if someone saw him just hanging around the café? People started to think the _The Filter _was haunted, no one would come. He, Kairi, Roxas and Cid would be out of work, left to wander around the street without food, water or a home to claim, and it would be all Riku's fault, just like so many, many other things.

Like his broken bones.

Like the bruises.

Like getting himself _killed._

Sora watched for a moment longer, certain that his hair was going to fall out, when he noticed what Riku could not see. There was a man walking up the front stair of the establishment, holding the hand of his girlfriend with nothing but the thought of a warm cup of coffee on his mind.

Riku's back was to the couple. He would not be able to hide in time. The couple advanced, and Sora felt his heart jump out of his chest; in a matter of moments he would be out of a job, and events would domino until he was evicted from his apartment.

Legs acting faster than his brain, he sprinted forward and huffed out the door. The bell jingled behind him, but he couldn't care less if Cid heard him or not. In the end, he could explain that he was doing him a favor. Feet landing with a thud on the concrete, he turned and screeched at Riku with all the fury of a man at the end of his rope.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Sora screamed, startling Riku from his crouched position, as well as the couple. "Get out of here!"

The man looked the slightest bit outraged at Sora's behavior and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Is there some kind of problem with us getting coffee?"

Momentarily staggered, Sora looked at him apologetically. "I'm sorry sir, not you. Him." He pointed at Riku.

Confusion set on the man's features, and Sora took this to mean that shock was starting to set in. As someone who had experienced copious amounts of it relatively recently, Sora could relate. "I assure you sir, everything is fine. Before alarm sets in, I'd just like to guarantee that our establishment isn't haunted. Whatever it is you're seeing is only a one-time thing."

The man looked at Sora oddly. "What are you talking about?"

"Our little pest problem," he indicated Riku again, garnering him a glare. "He was just leaving, so if you could just pretend that you never saw him in the first place, then I'm sure you—"

"Kid, take it from me," the man said leaning in close as his girlfriend folded her arms. "Listen to me. I know it's easier said than done, but you've really got to stop. I have a brother on the south side of town who's going through the same thing, and it's hard on him, too. You've just got to have some will power."

Sora's face fell. "What?"

"That stuff will mess with your head." The man said staring at him meaningfully. "It isn't healthy, especially at your age." He patted Sora on the shoulder and walked past him, girlfriend close behind. "Take some advice from a stranger. I believe you can do it."

Sora was uncertain of what to do, so he stood staring after him in shock. Maybe if he was lucky, he would wake up and all of this would just end up being a horrible, horrible nightmare. He pinched his arm, and as he thought, he was awake, living and breathing through an impossibly challenging reality. He sighed and turned towards Riku, who was displaying several emotions on his transparent features.

One of which was amusement.

"And just what are _you_ laughing at?" Sora said through gritted teeth. "I just tried to save you, and now this random stranger and his girlfriend think I'm on narcotics."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, floating over and laying a clammy hand on his shoulder. The smile was still on his face which rendered his apology ineffective. "I couldn't help it. The look on your face was pretty great."

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be back at my apartment out of trouble!"

"I'm sorry," Riku repeated. "I was bored and…" he thought it might be best to leave out the part about how he had really come to spy on what kind of story Sora was telling Kairi and Roxas regarding this whole predicament. "Well, I decided to come here to see exactly what it is that you do all day."

"You left the house." Sora said irately, jabbing a finger into Riku's chest, who looked un-phased as the digit passed through him. "What if someone saw you?"

"Oh that," Riku said, waving him away. "I was wondering what you were yelling at that poor man about. Don't worry about it."

"How can I not worry about it? What if people think that this place is haunted? Then I'll be out of munny, and then I'll absolutely refuse to help you get back into your body."

"I meant," Riku said rolling his eyes, "that you don't have to worry about it because it isn't a problem. No one can see me."

"_What?!_"

"Yeah," Riku grinned sheepishly. "I discovered that on the way over here. I'm invisible to everyone around me. Imagine how great it was walking through busy streets."

Sora's jaw promptly hit the floor, and Riku wondered if he was possibly going to pass out again. If Sora was worried about losing his job over having a friendly, charming, and mighty_ resilient_ ghost around, then he might want to consider what would happen if Cid caught him passing out on the front steps.

"What do you mean people can't see you?!"

"What does it sound like I mean?"

"Don't play games with me, Riku!" Sora shouted, ineffectively jabbing his finger at Riku's chest again. "If no one can see you, then that means that I shouldn't be able to, either."

Riku shrugged. "I guess you're the lucky one?"

"Lucky?" Sora wailed, crouching down on his knees. "This is a curse!"

Riku folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't think getting a second chance to hang out with your best friend would be such an inconvenience to you."

"I shouldn't have to _have_ a second chance, Riku. There should only be _one_. For most people, that's enough!"

"We've already gone over this."

"Really? Because I don't think I've yelled at you quite enough about how much of an inconsiderate jerk you are. Maybe I should lecture you about how much of an idiot you are? How about I go on about how much I utterly hate you for doing this to me?!"

"Doing this to you? To _you?_ Perhaps you haven't noticed that I'm not exactly skipping through the daisies. I'm pushing them up! Only, they're not daisies, they're crates down at the harbor in a warehouse whose only human visitation prior to me and the people who beat me up was exactly zero!"

Sora gritted his teeth, hating to admit that Riku may have had a point on that one. Furthermore, a quick survey around his surroundings proved that his little grand stand was starting to produce an audience, most of which were probably convinced that he was clinically insane. Biting back some of his anger, he threw a final glare at Riku, stuck his tongue out at him and leaned against the wall.

Riku's expression softened, and he floated to face him, blue eyes darkening with uncertainty and a touch of regret. Sora couldn't help but feel similarly. He never felt right when they fought, even if they had grown apart a bit over the years.

Sora put a hand over his eyes to ensure that he couldn't see the horrified faces of the people around him, and whispered, "So other people really can't see you?"

Riku nodded. "No one but you…so far."

"Great. Now I'm a clairvoyant." The thought of walking around in a candelabra-studded hallway wearing swaths of material that resembled a sorcerer's robe made him bitterly amused. Seeing only one ghost in a lifetime was more than enough.

Riku let out a dry chuckle, and leaned against the wall next to him, having to concentrate to keep himself from slipping through. "Looks like we've finally found you an exciting job."

"Trust me, having to watch over the ghost version of you would even spice up filing tax returns."

Riku looked at him again. Sora didn't even have to lift up his hand to know it. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay," Sora breathed, pushing himself off the wall, and forcing his face to remain neutral. He wasn't sure what he was feeling at that moment, and therefore didn't feel comfortable having his face betray him when he was still trying to figure out what it might show. "I've got a few more hours left on the clock. When I'm done, we'll figure out how to get you back where you need to be."

Riku's face lit up with gratefulness—as much as it possibly could, given his typically unexpressive nature—and Sora truly felt it. He knew that Riku didn't _usually_ intend to be such an inconvenience, so he appreciated that he appeared to be remorseful. He didn't think he would need much more convincing to help him out.

Sora smiled in return. "Alright then, let's figure out what to do with you while I'm here."

Riku nodded, but his face suddenly his face fell as a dark shadow was cast over him and Sora, obscuring the sun and leaving Sora with a sinking feeling.

"Figure out what to do with _what_?"

Sora recognized the deep and sand papery voice of his employer, and felt his body quake at the infinite power that he held over his paycheck. He swallowed and turned around. "Hi Cid."

"Don't _'hi Cid' _me. Now I _know_ you aren't out here slacking off."

"Of course not, sir. I was…eh…" He searched around for a distraction, simultaneously racking his brain for a suitable lie.

Then Sora felt the tip of something smooth nudge his hand, and he peered behind him to see Riku sliding the garden hose between his fingers. He nodded once, and Sora immediately understood.

"Oh of course not, sir!" Sora wailed, as though such an accusation was tremendously offensive. "I would never slack off. I was merely watering the flowers." Before Cid could open his mouth to argue, he unscrewed the tip of the hose and sprinkled the flowerbeds with a through dousing of water. "It's gotten so hot lately that I thought it 'd be a good idea to tend to them. After all, it's the first part of our fine establishment that the customers get to see. If the flowers die, it's a poor reflection of our business, don't you think? We employees should be just as concerned about the outside as the inside."

Cid folded his arms, his lower jaw jutting out disapprovingly. "That was an awfully Roxas-esque response, but I can't deny that the geraniums were looking a little pathetic. Never much cared for them myself." He gave Sora a suspicious once over before blowing air out of his nostrils in much the same way as an ox. "I still don't like it. Get back in the store."

"Yes sir!" Sora felt obligated to salute, but thought that might be going a touch overboard. Instead he scurried ahead of Cid and burst through the door, hurrying towards his abandoned broom to begin sweeping.

Roxas and Kairi, who had been previously fixated on the exchange outside, immediately resumed their respective tasks, appearing as though they were working all along. Cid barged through the door a few steps behind Sora, and sent them all a scowl before heading to the back room towards his office.

Sora let out a sigh of relief, but noticed that Riku had somehow disappeared during all of the commotion. He didn't have long to wonder about where he had gone off to, because moments after Cid had exited, Kairi and Roxas trampled over to him.

"What was that all about?" Roxas said, both of his eyebrows shooting, hidden beneath his sandy blond hair.

Sora swallowed hard, and wiped the sweat that was slowly beading on his forehead. "Oh that? Nothing. Cid caught me goofing off."

"Yeah , yeah what we all do. I mean why are you outside yelling at people? That guy came in here and told me to look out for you. Can't say I haven't been thinking the same thing for years, but apparently for different reasons…"

Sora felt the sweat bloom again, and wondered if Riku was around watching this exchange; wondered if he could see the obvious stress this was causing. He pulled at his apron and fidgeted, Roxas' steadily growing excitement evident on his face. If he didn't hurry and make up something, Roxas was going to start concocting a story, so he supposed he could have told him that he was outside twisting balloon animals for all it really mattered. Perhaps he would just go ahead and let Roxas be his ticket out of this problem in much the same way as he was earlier.

As expected, Roxas delivered.

Sora merely opened his mouth to speak, and Roxas instantly cut him off, grabbing his shoulders with ferociously. "You saw them, didn't you?"

Sora didn't even have to pause to think about what he could be talking about. "I did. We were talking, but Cid showed up and scared them away. I thought they were going to kill me."

"Ugh! This is unbelievable!" Roxas released his shoulders and clawed at his own face, looking a combination of energized and unspeakably jealous. "They found where you work?"

Kairi was standing close behind, her lips a thin line; this was her worried face.

Sora saw it and felt guilty. Going along with this lie was just about as bad as making it up in the first place, and if he continued on with it, sooner or later she was going to start to want to _act_ on this worry, and…

Roxas grabbed his shoulders again, pulling him from his thoughts. "Sora, this is _intense._ Are they following Riku, too? Is he safe at his apartment?"

"Ideally, he'd be there… but he left."

"He left town?!" the outrage that Roxas exuded was almost palpable. "It makes perfect sense! If I had a troop of criminal masterminds trying to kill me, I'd leave town, too, maybe to go train in the mountains for a while."

"You're getting a little carried away with this… Riku didn't—"

"Sora," Roxas hissed, eyes wide. "You've been left here to fend off droves of gangsters, and you're telling me to calm down? This is the best thing that's happened to me!"

"…How's that?"

Kairi interjected, but Sora couldn't tell if that was actually a good thing or not, considering the look on her face. "Sora, this is serious. People are following you to _hurt_ you."

"I'm fine, really."

"No he's not," Roxas grinned. "He's in serious, serious trouble!"

"I'm _fine!"_ Sora repeted, and pushed past both of them, heading to the back of the café. He was feeling a touch suffocated, and Cid _still _had an ear out just to catch them goofing off again. "We should get back to work. It would help me feel better if we kept things as uh…normal as possible."

Roxas and Kairi watched after him as he walked away, but Sora dared not turn around, lest the follow and resume their questioning.

And it would have been perfect if Riku hadn't chosen that moment to reappear, leaning against the counter just in front of him, staring at him with bemusement on his features.

Sora struggled not to make a sound, as Kairi and Roxas were still watching him, but he couldn't help the small whine that escaped his throat when Riku followed him beneath the detection of his other two friends.

Sora made the sound again as he picked up the wash rag, and mopped the counter with it, and Riku leaned against the freshly cleaned surface, eyebrows waggling.

"What is _this_ all about?" Riku grinned.

Sora ignored him.

"Not going to tell me?"

Sora rubbed the counter harder.

"Are you leaving me to go find out for myself?"

Sora shot him a dirty look.

"Okay then. I'll take that as permission."

Sora turned towards him to shout at him—mostly visually—but he had already floated off.

Sora threw the rag down and looked about for Riku's transparent form, but he could have already been sitting inside the cupboards for all he could tell. Kairi and Roxas were only a few meters away, so if he started frantically searching, or worse "talking to himself" again, they were going to try and get him committed. He had no choice but to sit on his thumbs and hope that he wasn't getting into any trouble.

Kairi meanwhile was watching Sora with interest, while she and Roxas were refilling the napkin containers.

And Riku was watching them from the inside of the wall.

"I think all of this worrying is making him panicky," Roxas said to her, as they pretended to be occupied by the napkins and various coffee accoutrements. "I can't say I blame him, though."

"This whole situation is strange. I don't like it."

"Of course you wouldn't," Roxas rolled his eyes. You can't spell 'killjoy' without spelling 'Kairi.'"

"…Yes you can."

"You know what I mean. Anyway, how many times does your friend get chased by real gangsters? The only thing I'm worried about is him leaving town. We won't be able to check his status."

"I'm worried about much more important things. Like survival."

"You think they're going to come after you, too?"

"No!" Kairi pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm worried about _Sora_ surviving. This is serious!"

Riku shook his head as he listened to the two of them. He wasn't sure what it was Sora had told them, but whatever it was, it sounded pretty extravagant. He wasn't sure if it meant that his previous concerns about Sora telling them unfavorable information was still necessary, but given that Roxas was excited about it, he figured that he might need to stick around the coffee shop for a little while longer.

He listened to their conversation for a few more minutes, but neither offered much of a clue as to specifics. What he gathered was that Sora was apparently in some kind of trouble by a troop of nameless sentries from an underground drug ring, and that perhaps he might need to be on the run for an undetermined amount of time.

He quickly grew tired of their idle chatter, although Roxas did include a particularly riveting quip about the potential for beastly hounds to come sniffing around the coffee shop to find Sora and Riku's whereabouts, and decided that if he was going to hang around the coffee shop for the remainder of the afternoon eavesdropping, he was going to at least try to have a little fun.

Starting with Kairi and Roxas.

* * *

Thanks for reading, all. The next chapter will be up soon.


	10. Ritual

Welcome back for Chapter 10. Thank you for reading this far. Eh, more things are explained, then subsequently torn apart. :3 Enjoy!

**Chapter 10: Ritual**

* * *

Seifer shoved his hands in his pockets as he trailed behind the flowing coat of Xemnas, struggling to keep his feet silent on the hard wood of the dock. Rai had managed to collect himself and was also scurrying to keep up while remaining quiet. He kept sending sideways glances at Seifer as they walked, possibly because he was unsure of why Seifer had insisted that they head to the Organization's private port—Seifer supposed numbing fear of meeting with Xemnas might have a negative effect on his memory. He ignored Rai and focused on moving forward.

Axel had also accompanied the three of him, much to his borderline violent disapproval. Axel had a knack for fiery things, and nearly burned Seifer alive when he had entered his comrade's chambers to relay the news that Xemnas had requested his presence. Seifer couldn't hide that he was silently pleased that even though he may have barely escaped irreparable bodily damage, Axel was being forced into the same humiliation as himself.

Axel wasn't even attempting to walk quietly, and was tromping down the harbor like a disgruntled elephant. He made a few faces behind Xemnas's back, and folded his arms. "Where are we going?"

Seifer swallowed. He never would have spoken to their supervisor in such a way, but then again, Axel did a lot of things he would never do.

Xemnas regarded Axel with an eerie calmness. "We are heading back to the harbor in which this whole event took place."

"Why?"

"To go correct a wrong that shouldn't have happened."

Axel folded his arms and snorted. "Please. Doing _wrong_ is what we do. If we start correcting everything, then all of us will be unemployed."

Xemnas chose not to reply and continued walking, so Axel chose to bother Seifer instead. "This is all your fault. If you hadn't gotten so excited, none of us would be here, and _I'd_ still be asleep."

"Shut up," Seifer hissed in reply. "I don't remember you standing on the side lines begging us to stop. In fact, you and Luxord were taking bets as to who could land the most hits. If anything, it should be me who gets to go home."

"Right, because it wasn't you who killed him? Hmm, somehow that sounds wrong."

"It was an accident!"

"Because you're an idiot! Even Demyx knows people die when they stop breathing, and he's one brick short of a load."

Seifer pursed his lips. "I had a moment of intense emotional stress. I don't remember anything about that."

Axel nearly fell over. "Are you kidding me? Is _that_ what you told Xemnas? Well, looks like someone wasn't being honest. Lucky for you, I'm here to fill in the blanks."

"Yeah right. You don't even know how to tell the truth. My story was one hundred percent accurate."

"Except the part you don't remember, right? So it's more like ninety-eight percent?"

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

Xemnas growled, which silenced both of them in a matter of seconds. Rai, who had already been silent for the trip was trembling. As far as he was concerned, he didn't do anything to really warrant coming along. In fact, it was all Axel and Seifer's talking to Xemnas that had gotten him into this predicament in the first place. Why he continued to stick to Seifer's side so readily was a mystery even to himself…

Xemnas's growl was followed by a quiet sigh. The four of them had reached the harbor where one of the Organization's vessels bobbed up and down in the water, a quiet reminder that they would spend the next several hours together as it sailed across the sea without the means to escape. Xemnas took a moment to take another deep breath before stepping on board, and waited for the others to follow.

The vessel was black, sleek and short, designed mainly for swift and silent night travel. It was a stealthy boat, one which Xemnas fancied for urgent matters and delicate operations. In fact, stealth was of so much importance for the majority of the Organization's business deals, that the only identifying information that any of their vessels was its number, stamped out in white Roman numerals on the stern. It was indeed morning, and while they were making the trip back to Destiny Islands on black boat that may have looked a little suspicious coasting across the waves, this vessel, number XIII, was one of the faster boats the Organization owned, and haste in their actions was definitely a necessity.

Seifer kicked Rai in the ankle. "Hey, prepare the vessel to disembark. Our supervisor doesn't have all day you know." He looked up at Xemnas with eyes alight with innocence as Rai trudged off to release the ropes that tethered the vessel to the harbor. "Let's hope this trip doesn't take long so that he doesn't have to waste more time on such a trivial venture."

Axel snorted. "Which wouldn't have occurred if _you_ hadn't been so proud."

"No one was talking to you, Axel."

"Doesn't matter. My opinion is always ready to be given. I don't even need a request."

"This trip might be a lot more pleasant if you did."

"It might, but it might be even _more _pleasant if you hadn't given us the reason to make it in the first place."

Rai could feel Xemnas getting increasingly more frustrated, so he cleared his throat and tried to interject. "Xemnas sir," he started quietly. "I have a question, y'know?"

"What?" Xemnas, who was fixated on the controls of the vessel tried to begin speaking without the homicidal tone in his voice, but the way Rai shrank away towards the stern provided evidence that he wasn't that successful. He tried again. "What is it, Rai?"

"Um, yes…I was just wondering how we're going to fix things."

Xemnas turned from the controls to face the other three passengers, silently debating if disclosing the information was actually beneficial or not. On one hand, knowledge could potentially distract them long enough to keep them from bickering, but on the other hand there was the distinct possibility that it wouldn't, potentially exacerbating the conflict. It was times like these that Xemnas wondered if he was really the head of a world renowned and revered organization for underhanded dealings, or if he was just a babysitter for adults.

"We're going to go back to the harbor and find the body."

Axel's face twisted up in disgust. "No thanks. Hate to break it to you, but I'm not into that."

"You don't have a choice in the matter," Xemnas said folding his arms. "Do you all remember how long it took for you to become members here?"

Axel's knotted face became even more twisted as he was reminded of his training days. A lot of unpleasantness arose from that time period, most of which involved rituals and impromptu early morning meetings.

The statement did nothing more than remind Seifer of how much farther he still had to go, now even more given his recent setbacks.

Axel, Seifer and Rai nodded simultaneously.

"Saix, if you've had the pleasure, has been a member of this organization since its beginning. He is an excellent informant, fighter, and spy." Xemnas closed his eyes. "However, many of the training requirements we put the new hires through are the direct result of some of the…liberties he has taken prior to establishing them."

"Are you talking about the strict two weapon maximum for any given mission?" Rai asked.

"Yes, that and many other things. In this particular case, I'm referring to the preventative rituals."

"All that junk we had to do to prevent X-Y-Z from happening? I remember those."Axel rolled his eyes. "Something about keeping people from accidentally revealing the location of headquarters or whatever, right?"

Xemnas nodded. "In this case, I'm referring to ritual number 76."

Axel shook his head. "There are 233 rituals. After about number 15 it gets hard trying to remember what all of them are for."

"Right. Well, 76 refers to the accidental or unapproved termination of non-Organization members."

"We have one of those?"

Xemnas nodded. "Each member must complete all rituals prior to being sent into the field, even if they are still in training like you, Seifer and Rai. It is essential for many reasons, and given the recent circumstances, it looks as though I was not in error to establish mandatory completion of the whole set before sending you out."

Axel shrugged and moved to lean against one of the rails lining the edges of the vessel. "Great. You were paranoid enough to put a safeguard in place. How's it work?"

Xemnas pursed his lips at the informal manner in which Axel insisted on addressing him, but resolved to ignore it as he had for the past several years. "Once the trainee performs the ritual, he or she relinquishes a certain power to me as the head of The Organization. Think of it this way," he tipped his head to the side. "The members of The Organization are all employees of an elite and powerful retail establishment. I am the manager. If one of the members decides he or she has botched a transaction, such as accidentally killing the customer, I, as the manager am able to use my magic key card to reset the system and fix it. The customer lives, leaves, and we all pretend it never happened."

Axel's eyebrows shot up. "You have a magic key card?"

"That was an analogy."

Seifer's face lit up in excitement. "Let me get this straight, even if we mess up everything on a mission, we can reset things as though they never happened? Like a time machine?"

"No. _I_ can _fix_ certain mistakes in, as it stands now, 233 scenarios, provided haste is utilized and certain conditions are met. It does _not_ mean that you can gallivant through the streets waving The Organization's name around on a vigilante flag as you do whatever you please with the expectation that I won't severely punish you. Furthermore, I said 'fix,' not 'erase.' If the subjects of this matter are unwilling to cooperate with our compensation…well, I'll let you imagine the potential consequences you will face."

Seifer was scared into silence after that statement.

Axel was not.

"What kind of conditions are we talking about here? Rainy? Wintery mix?"

Xemnas shook his head. "I'm referring to the condition of the target. Preferably, the body should still have the capability to sustain life. Ritual 200 addresses occasions when they aren't, but at the cost to a tremendous amount of energy and time."

"What else?"

Xemnas eyed Axel so as to give him an indication that the questioning was starting to get on his nerves, but Axel continued to stare as though he didn't notice.

Xemnas rubbed his eyes. "We'll talk more when we get there." Silently, he returned to the controls, wondering if he could possibly make the vessel go faster than its maximum speed. Interaction with Axel and his two trainees was starting to steadily pluck at his nerves.

Axel let out a disgruntled sigh. "This is really ridiculous. How much other stuff have I let you have control of?"

Xemnas chose to ignore him, so he leaned over the edge, and picked at the finish on the side of the boat. "How much longer until we get there?"

* * *

Sora was watching Riku out of the corner of his eye as he mopped the counter with a rag. He had disappeared some time ago to meddle in business that was not his, and had just recently reappeared by the tables, waltzing between customers and through chairs. Sora had seen Riku do this a few times already, but watching him pass through objects so easily still made a shiver run up his spine.

Riku maneuvered back around the tables, catching his eye a few times and smirking, and this was how Sora knew that he was determined to do something he didn't approve of. Unfortunately, the only people he could seek advice from were currently unable to see the source of his anguish, and furthermore, they were already convinced he was half out of his mind. Sora sighed, and threw the rag down to count the pastries behind the glass, keeping one eye on the food, and the other on Riku.

He watched as he headed over to Roxas and Kairi, watching them quietly for a moment, then he struck.

Sora had to put his hands over his mouth to keep from yelling.

Riku had slipped his hand between Roxas and Kairi to the napkins they were restocking, and had simply picked one up, holding it horizontally above the granite counter.

Roxas immediately stopped playing with the honey, and glanced curiously at the napkin, seemingly defying gravity.

"Woah," he said. "The static electricity is intense today."

Kairi watched for a moment, then plucked it out of the air and put it back in the napkin holder. "Looks like it."

Riku had a merry time giggling to himself about this, his mischievousness reinforced by a positive reaction. He grinned and reached for the sugar packets.

Sora heard a series of exclamations as the sugar packets began "dancing" on the table, and thought he was going to come undone. He didn't know what he did to deserve such mistreatment, but this stress was threatening to give him a heart attack. The moment the honey jar started moving on its own, was the moment that Sora launched himself across the café between Roxas and Kairi—subsequently through Riku—to snatch away the floating objects.

Kairi and Roxas looked at him incredulously.

Sora refused to make eye contact.

"…Uh…hey Sora…" Roxas started quietly.

"Don't talk to me right now." He sent a menacing glower to Riku who backed away sheepishly into the wall.

"Okay. When would be a good time?"

Sora stuffed the objects back into their respective locations and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Riku had disappeared again, preferably for the rest of the day. He spared another glance at the wall to make sure that his friend had indeed gone through it, then stood and straightened up his apron.

Roxas was still staring at him.

"What?"

Roxas shook his head. "You know what? Nothing. I'm just going to go over here," he indicated the other side of the restaurant and began backing up. "I've never seen you move that fast before. Kinda scary."

"I had to! Riku was—er…"

Roxas continued to back up, but Kairi looked at him pityingly. The emotion ran so deep on her face that Sora knew that he had no hope of salvaging his reputation, or trying to tell the truth.

"Sora," she said quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Come with me."

Sora felt his blood run cold from simultaneous worry about what it was she wanted, and where Riku had gone off to, but he followed her to the back of the café, with increasing dread.

She looked over her shoulder as she pushed the door open, to make sure he was still there behind her. Sora couldn't blame her. With the way he was acting today, she probably thought he was two steps away from bouncing off the walls. He swallowed as they entered the back room.

Cid was meandering around, also pretending to do work, but the hypocrisy of it all was lost on Sora who walked in with his head down. He Did, however; look up in just enough time to see Kairi work some of her magic.

"Cid," she said sweetly, lacing her fingers in front of her apron.

"Eh, what?"

"Sora and I were about to take inventory back here. Is that okay?"

"You're leaving Roxas at the front of the house by himself? I like my customers, thank you. No."

Kairi didn't even hesitate at the reply. "Actually, I think the source of Roxas's dysfunction here is because he doesn't feel included."

Cid rubbed his finger beneath his chin and scowled. "I don't do hand-holding."

"That's not what I mean." She gestured for Sora to stand next to her, and put on her most sympathetic face. "Sora and I have a very special connection to this place. The pastries, the coffee, the customers, and of course, our reliable manager."

Sora nodded at Kairi's prompt—an elbow to the ribs.

"I think if you really showed Roxas why this place is so great, he'd be more apt team player."

Cid rubbed his chin even harder, skepticism washing all over his features. "And how are you proposing I do that? I'm not sure how 'get to work you three troublemakers' isn't inclusive."

"Well," Kairi tilted her head in mock thought. "Why not teach him how to use the espresso machine? There's no better tie to a coffee house than the coffee…er, espresso."

Cid grunted. "He seriously doesn't know how to use it? How long have you all been here?"

"See? No wonder he doesn't feel included. If I were you, I'd teach him how to use it before he stops working altogether."

"Then I'll fire him."

"Then you'll have to find and train someone else."

Cid paused. "Huh, you've got a point."

Kairi grinned, victory apparent. "Sora and I will work back here, and you can go train Roxas. It probably won't take you any more than twenty minutes. Right Sora?"

"Huh? Oh, right."

Cid glared at her, but her smile remained pleasant. "Ugh, I guess. But don't think you two can just play around back here. I'll know if you're slacking."

"Yes sir."

Cid spared another glare at them before huffing off to the front of the café to find Roxas who had no previous knowledge of his upcoming training session.

Kairi's pleasant smile evolved to a snide grin. "Awesome."

"Roxas is going to hate you," Sora pointed out.

She shrugged. "Doesn't matter. We can deal with it later. Right now, we need to talk."

Sora swallowed hard and watched her; watched her lift her eyebrow, fold her arms the way she always did preceding a lecture, the tilt in her hips. Kairi had been preparing this speech all afternoon, he thought bitterly. Her opinions on the matter had been very limited save for the occasional exclamations of anguish each time Roxas said something _too_ enthusiastic until now.

He watched with dread as she closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply, and when they opened, they found his and locked on like the crosshairs on a rabbit.

"Sora, are people really after you?"

"Yes."

"That's what I was afraid you were going to say." She swallowed. "I'm really worried for you."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it, but you don't have to be." He tried to smile at her, but he could feel the lines of his face making more of a grimace.

"How can I not? You're one of my closest friends." She clasped her hands together and looked up at him, and for a moment Sora was worried that she was going to cry. He tried to look anywhere but her eyes, but found that he couldn't.

"Sora," She put her hands on his shoulder. "If something happens to you—"

"Nothing's going to happen to me." He interrupted pulling away in an attempt to demonstrate his lack of panic. "I can take care of myself. I'm tougher than I look."

"Sure. When was the last time you've been in a fight?"

"Yester—"

"Arguing with Riku doesn't count."

"Fine. Last wee—"

"Or Roxas."

"Eh…a couple of months ago—"

"Or Cid."

Sora threw his hands up. "Okay, so I haven't been in many fist fights, but really I can assure you, I'll be okay." Sora left out the fact that the story was fabricated, and moved to the other side of the room to keep his face from showing.

"How many people are after you?"

Sora really had to think about this one. On one hand, a small number wouldn't really be that convincing, especially since he was supposed to be terrified out of his mind. Aside from that, Riku was supposed to be involved in the venture, and any number smaller then two would be unrealistically easy for both of them to take on. It would probably launch Kairi into investigation mode, where the authorities would be called. A number too large would bring his little white lie to cinematic proportions, which would defeat the purpose of trying to get away with it. "Five."

"There are _five _men after you?"

"That's what I counted…eh…yesterday when I looked out my window. It could have gone up, it could have gone down. Who's to say?"

Kairi clenched a fist. "And all of these people came from the harbor, because Riku started a fight?"

Sora was starting to dislike how this conversation was going. "Well, there's probably more to it than that."

Kairi marched over to Sora and turned him around, jabbing a well-polished nail at his chest. "Are you kidding me? I thought you talked to him!"

"Huh?"

"The harbor, Sora. You were supposed to talk to him about your concerns with him working down at the harbor. Now he's gone off and caused trouble for both of you. This is unbelievable!"

Sora struggled to hang onto her words. A train crashed in his brain somewhere, but he didn't understand why. Somehow though, things had clearly made a turn for the worse. "Um, wait…"

"No," Kairi fumed, marching about the back room. "This is inexcusable. I can't believe he would be so reckless as to get on the bad side of some underground crime ring. Now both of you are in danger!"

"Uh…hang on…"

"It's one thing to get himself into these kinds of problems—and believe me, I have an opinion or two about how little he cares about his own personal safety—but now he's gone off and thrown you into his little fairy tale along with him. Stories like these don't have happy endings, Sora. They just don't!"

"Maybe this time it will. Miracles and all that."

"Sora, this is serious. When I get my hands on him, I'm going to strangle him. I might even turn him in to the people who are after him in the first place!"

"Please don't do that." Sora said holding his hands up defensively. There really wasn't _anyone_ to turn him in _to_ for that matter. "Let's just calm down."

"I'm not going to calm down!" She yelled. Kairi inhaled once, and both of them looked towards the door to make sure that Cid didn't come through the door.

Three seconds ticked by, and Sora was about to turn back around to continue trying to assuage some of her anxiety, but someone else walked through the door instead.

Literally.

Sora's face whitened and he had to take a calming breath to keep his heart rate from skyrocketing.

Riku, who Sora hoped had disappeared for the rest of the afternoon, wandered into the back of the store room to find out why Kairi was shouting. As far as Sora was concerned, this might have been the most catastrophic thing to happen all day.

Riku could _not_ find out that Kairi was mad at him.

That Sora—arguably Roxas—had lied.

That he was going to be blamed for something he didn't really do.

Sora swallowed hard and tried to make a face in such a way that Riku would get the hint and leave, but he knew before he even did it that it would be a failed attempt. Riku never took his frantic facial expressions (warnings of impending danger, advice, helpful suggestions, etcetera) seriously. Instead, he strolled all the way into the back room, took a quick glance around the various shelves, then locked a pair of highly entertained eyes onto Sora's panicked ones.

Then he sat down and watched with a smug look on his face.

Sora wanted the ceiling to fall on his head so that he would not be conscious to witness the impending disaster. He swallowed hard and rubbed his hands together. "You know what, let's change the subject. Want to teach me how to make something out of…eh…other stuff?"

Kairi violently shook her head. "I mean it, Sora. How many times have you told me about Riku coming to crash on your couch because he's gone off and hurt himself? How many times have you tried to hide how worried you've been about this whole thing?"

The smug appearance on Riku's face instantly vanished, as did his eyebrows beneath his bangs.

Sora was pretty sure that his heart stopped beating. "Not that many. I'm worried yes, but I don't complain about it. Ever." He spared another look at Riku. "_Ever_."

"Stop sticking up for him. It's officially gone too far. When I find him he's getting serious piece of my mind. Sora, you could be killed!"

Riku stood up at this, mouth agape in outrage, fists balled at his side.

Sora took in the expression on his face and felt utterly helpless. "Kairi, calm down. It's not really like it sounds. Look, remember what you asked me earlier? I lied. Everything is really fine."

"You're just saying that to calm me down, but I refuse. I mean it, Sora. This has got to stop! As soon as we get off work, I'm going to go ring his neck!"

Sora watched several expressions meld over Riku's face, most of which portrayed intense anger. Sora's chest felt heavy, and his heart, which had come to a frozen halt earlier, was hammering against his ribs far faster than what should have been considered healthy. "Kairi…"

"No," She said, turning to him, eyes matching the same ferocity as Riku's. "I care too much about both of you to let one of you mess with the other. Neither of you listen to reason, and just like I knew it would all along, it's gotten out of hand. This is beyond acceptable, and I refuse to listen to these excuses!"

Sora was silently begging the floor to open up and swallow him whole, but since his life was turning into the cosmic joke of the ages, he was granted no such reprieve. "Kairi, Riku didn't do anything. It's fine."

Kairi just stared at him and shook her head. "You've just told me everything I need to know. I'm going to help Cid train Roxas on the espresso machine to cool off."

"Um…"

"I'll teach him to make a _Ristretto_. This should be entertaining." She marched off through the door and left Sora standing in the room with a seething Riku.

Sora barely waited for the doors to close before he threw himself at Riku's transparent feet. "I can explain!"

* * *

.

Thank you for reading. Chapter 11 will be up shortly.


	11. Trust

**Notes: **Other chapters received small formatting changes. I have no idea where time went. Terribly sorry for the slow update. Thanks for sticking with this so far!

**Chapter 11: Trust**

* * *

Riku stared at Sora with an anger so intense that Sora was pretty sure that the café was going to alight with flames. "Can you, now? Can you please tell me why Kairi is angry at me for a story that you told her behind my back? How about you go ahead and tell me all of what you've been saying?"

Sora forced himself to face Riku and doing so made it very difficult to make noise come out of his mouth. "It's not what it sounds like. It's not!"

"I think I got enough of the picture," Riku replied. "Maybe I've been misjudging you."

"I told an elaborate lie to hide the fact that you were in…an accident. It just got out of hand and…" Sora paused and thought for a moment. He then picked himself up off of the floor and folded his arms. "And what do you mean you've _misjudged me? _"

Riku folded his arms, his eyes narrow. "It's exactly as it sounds. I didn't think you were the kind of person who went around telling people lies about me, but maybe I've been wrong all these years."

Sora scoffed at this, suddenly forgetting why he was so sorrowful to begin with. "_Lies_ _about you? _I told _one _lie, and that was to keep people from finding out what happened to you. Would you rather I tell the truth?"

"Would it be better than what you told them?"

"Who's to say? Why don't we find out? Tell you what, go in there and tell Kairi and Roxas that you got yourself killed by getting into a fight you couldn't handle. Oh wait, you _can't_ do that can you? You're a ghost!"

"Right. I'm a ghost. I was killed because of a mistake, and you're taking complete and utter satisfaction in it, aren't you? Excited to be the popular guy at work? Finally have a fun story to tell your friends? Tell me more about how your life is in danger. I'm dying to know."

Sora's face heated up, and he felt his own fists balling at his sides. After all he'd done over the years to keep Riku in one piece, how he had sacrificed sleep, and energy, and frozen foods to accommodate his recklessness, and _he_ was being accused of taking this situation too lightly? "That's ridiculous and you know it. I've been doing nothing but help you!"

"You're right. I'm sorry. Telling Kairi to hate me is a clear example of you trying to help."

"I didn't tell her to hate you! She came to that conclusion by herself…er…sort of."

"Because we have such frequent and regular conversations for her to get there on her own. Jeez, it's not enough for you to hate me, but you're going to make a little army of people to come with you? What's Roxas' opinion of me now? Does he think I've been torturing you? Maybe selling all of your belongings for weapons and drugs?"

Sora jabbed a finger at him, but stopped just short of his chest since he knew it would go right through. "Roxas pretty much kisses the ground you walk on because he thinks it's so cool that you go around getting your face busted in. Let's go ahead and use Roxas' judgment as the benchmark for everything we have opinions on, huh? _I_ for one don't think it's so cool. I think it's reckless, and stupid, and to be perfectly honest, you _deserve_ what happened because normal people don't enjoy getting into fist fights!"

Riku looked slightly taken aback by this statement, but Sora didn't care. All of the stress he had accumulated during the day, the lack of sleep, the lying, and the distinct possibility that he would never be able to yell at the real, living, breathing form of his best friend again was finally sending him over the edge.

"You screwed up, and now I have to live without you. You're _dead_, Riku. I've been trying to ignore that and find a suitable way of helping you, but I don't know how. What if we can't find a way to get you back into your body? What if you're a ghost forever, or worse, you disappear and I'll never be able to see you again? What if all the trying in the world we do isn't enough? People don't just get a second chance, and I just can't handle that!"

Sora didn't realize he was shaking while he was talking, not until his eyes started to tear up and his field of vision started to blur. He wiped the tears away and sniffed, spent.

Riku had an unreadable expression. Sora's words seemed to have made an impact, but he couldn't tell what impact that could be. He stared at Riku for a few minutes, his unblinking eyes, his pinched brow, his tightly set jaw.

He much preferred it when Riku was angry at him. He did not like the look that came over his face.

"You're right," Riku said quietly, shifting his gaze to meet Sora's. "I might not be able to come back."

Sora's mouth went dry. Having the truth out in the open, hanging between the two of them like a dark miasma made him feel utterly ill and empty inside. He wished that he could take the words back, that the two of them could just go back to being in denial, and arguing about petty stuff, and pretending that there was a reasonable solution hidden somewhere that the two of them would be able to find.

This small gap in their friendship, the one that had developed after Riku worked at the harbor, and Sora started working at _The_ _Filter_, it had become a wide chasm now. It stretched beyond minor grievances with each other, newly developed personality conflicts, and insensitivity. It was now the divide between life and death, the physical body and the supernatural.

And it might have very well been permanent.

"Riku…"

Riku closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them, briefly flashing a myriad of emotions: anger, hurt, anger again, and resolve. He blinked, and they were gone, and the cool indifference that his eyes usually held was back. He shrugged his translucent shoulders and folded his arms. "However, that doesn't give you a right to talk about me."

"What?"

"That's right," He said pointing at Sora half heartedly. "I'll remember this forever…however long that ends up being. I'm going to go and leave you to work, but keep in mind that you're an awful person and I'm never going to forgive you." He punctuated the statement by jabbing Sora in the chest with a cold finger, then turned and floated through the wall.

Sora's mouth hung open. "Wait," he called, pushing open the door from the back room. "Wait!"

He was met with the bewildered expressions of Kairi, Roxas, and Cid each with various smudges of coffee grounds on their aprons.

Not Riku.

Riku was gone.

Kairi put down the ceramic cup half full of espresso and turned to him. "Sora? You okay?"

"I'm fine…I…I'm fine."

"You look kind a sick, kid." Cid said gruffly. "If you throw up, you're cleaning the floor before I send your skinny butt home."

"I'm really okay," Sora breathed, knowing that he was lying again. "I'm…I'm just going to watch what you're doing. Espresso. Right."

Kairi didn't look convinced, but Cid couldn't care less. "Great. Roxas was just learning how to make steamed milk."

Sora swallowed, and smiled halfheartedly. "Sounds great."

* * *

The end of Sora's shift seemed to come at a snail's pace.

A snail suspended in molasses.

_Frozen_ molasses.

Even so, it did come to an end, and Roxas moseyed home with a vague idea of how to make a simple espresso, and Cid left with a distinct hatred for it from that day forward. Kairi decided to wait for Sora as he dispassionately hung up his apron, but he kind of wished that she hadn't. He wanted to walk home in the quiet of the evening and think.

What had become of things?

Where did he and Riku stand?

For that matter, he hoped that Riku might have just gone to wait at Sora's apartment, but if he knew his friend—and it was becoming increasingly more apparent that they may not be anymore—he wouldn't be there. If Sora didn't make him feel guilty enough at this point about staying at his home, then he didn't know what would.

He let out a long, tired sigh, and turned to meet Kairi, who smiled at him softly.

"Hey," she said somberly, putting a kind hand on his shoulder. "Want to walk me home?"

"I suppose I can…" he replied, not sure of what that meant. Judging from the tone of her voice, he didn't suspect any ill intent by the question, but he refused to let himself be tricked. He eyed her warily. "Why?"

"Mainly to talk, but it would probably sound nicer if I told you I was afraid of the dark, huh?"

He thought as much. "Yes."

"Sorry. I find it much easier to be honest." She smiled. "Is it okay if we talk anyway?"

Sora ignored that inadvertent stab at his conscience and agreed, although he was pretty sure that she said all that she needed to say earlier that afternoon. Riku had heard everything, and while Sora wasn't the one damaged by the harmless-turned-horrific lie he had told, he didn't know if he would be able to keep sustaining it, even though Riku wasn't present. All he really wanted to do was to mope, go home, mope some more, then go to bed, but life was starting to become increasingly harder on him.

Kairi embodied that very hardship as she grabbed his hand and steered him out the door.

The sun was low on the horizon, bathing the sky in a golden light. Sora couldn't help but wonder where Riku was right now. Would he be okay for the night? Would it be cold since he didn't have any skin to insulate his…nothingness? Would he just wander and wander until there was nothing left? That thought alone was enough to ruin any and all hope he had of getting to sleep that night, so he immediately forced that sort of thinking out of his mind. Riku was at his own home, safe and out of trouble. He refused to think anything less.

Kairi sighed deeply as she looked towards the sky, eyes bright. "It's nice out," she said simply.

"Hm."

"You don't agree?"

"I guess it's okay."

Kairi nodded. "The sky is the color of daisies, and there's a light breeze, too."

"…Is there…?"

"Sure is. There are also birds in the sky, and three of those birds are actually dinosaurs."

"Yeah."

"And their eggs are raining from the sky. Watch out, there's one coming right for you."

"…Absolutely."

Kairi sighed and stopped on the middle of the sidewalk, hands on her hips. "Really?"

"Huh?" Sora stopped too, wondering why. "What happened?"

"Something is bothering you."

"How do you gather that?"

"Because I've been sitting here talking about nonsense, and your head is in the clouds."

Sora looked at the ground, then slowly looked up to meet her eyes. "I guess there's no trying to convince you otherwise, huh?"

"Not in a million years."

Sora shook his head. Everything was so wrong, and only a portion of the part that Kairi knew was the truth. Balancing lies, keeping Riku safe, getting Riku to _like_ him again…all of it was overwhelming. He didn't even know where to begin. What could he really say? He looked at Kairi pointedly, trying to express his inability to communicate.

The face he was met with was calm. It was peaceful, it was accepting. She wasn't gripping his arm, demanding an explanation, and she wasn't yelling at him—a nice change from their exchange earlier—and she wasn't even giving him that disapproving motherly glower she produced every time she caught him doing something ridiculous. It was a face of understanding.

He felt unbearably guilty right then. This was the person he didn't trust with a secret as important as the death of their mutual friend; this was the person he had inadvertently turned against Riku—in _front_ of Riku no less—despite the host of future misunderstandings between them that were likely to arise.

But Riku's secret wasn't Sora's secret to tell; not until his condition was final, not until Sora couldn't see him anymore. And maybe he was the tiniest bit glad for all of this, because that meant he didn't have to be strong enough to tell Kairi for a while. He could make up lies and pretend things were fine. He wouldn't have to imagine the looks of shock, the wandering eyes, the questions, the sympathy, the pomp and circumstance. Even if Sora and Riku had come to an understanding that all of this denial might be slowly coming to a close, that didn't mean that Kairi and the others had to understand any of it. Sora could keep the fantasy alive in her, and he wouldn't have to deal with so much grief at one time.

He decided to hold onto the guilt, just for a little while longer.

Sora cleared his throat. "You know, it's true. I've got a lot on my mind. I'm sorry I can't tell you much more than that."

Kairi nodded, the corners of her mouth turned upward. "I figured as much. My outburst earlier today probably didn't help. I'm sorry that I blew up like that."

"It's okay." And Sora really meant it. "I can't imagine that this is easy for you to swallow. Just do me a favor and don't blame Riku too much."

"No promises. I'll admit that I might have overreacted just a touch, but he and that harbor are trouble."

"I know. It's just…well…some things aren't always as they appear. Even bad things."

Kairi snorted and resumed walking. "Like lies?"

This caught Sora off guard, and he found himself choking on the air he was supposed to be breathing. "What?"

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, you don't think I believe this nonsense about you being chased around by a bunch of thugs. That's why I asked you so many times."

Sora tried to keep himself from getting upset. "Well what _do_ you think happened? Don't tell me you were yelling at me for no reason."

"Of course not." She lifted a finger to her chin. "I know that you're very upset about something, and that something bad is happening to you, and to Riku. It involves the harbor. I have suspicions about specifics, but all of them are admittedly pretty hard to prove."

Sora cleared his throat and tried to keep a neutral face. "Well, you should start believing me more."

"Please, your poker face is about as effective as telling everyone you're about to tell a lie. It's okay though."

Sora sighed, knowing he really shouldn't have been surprised by this at all. After all, Kairi had been able to read him like a picture booklet ever since they were young. He supposed the real surprise was that she had waited until just now to call him out on it. He told her as much.

Kairi grinned. "Well, I figured it must have been something really important. After all, I pretty much chewed your face off in the back and you still didn't tell. I can't force something out of you that you don't want to share. That wouldn't make me a very good friend, would it?"

"I suppose not," Sora agreed, wondering how on earth he had been lucky enough to meet such a person. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. And for future reference, if Roxas gets excited about something you tell him, there's a good chance it didn't actually happen. Just saying."

"Noted."

"Good. Now get me home so that you can get back home to sort through whatever's bothering you. If you need me, you know where to find me." She smiled.

Sora nodded, feeling uplifted despite the situation. If only he knew where to find Riku, too.

The walk to Kairi's house continued in relative silence, but it was a peaceful silence. The sky was just starting to darken, and the moths hadn't even emerged to circle the street lamps yet. Kairi let him walk and think, and kept her word of not pestering him about his troubles. He felt at peace with her; left alone, he might wind up hopelessly moping in his apartment. He didn't think that he would ever find the proper way to thank her, at least, not while he was intentionally keeping the heart of the problem between himself and Riku. Maybe he would offer to pick up one of her shifts at the café…

When they arrived at her house, the dim glow of the porch light mirroring the warm glow of the setting sun just moments ago, he smiled as they departed. One conflict had been resolved, and it lifted a tremendous weight off of his shoulders.

There was still something else pressing he had to tend to, though, and he kept that thought in mind as he hurried home. He needed to talk to Riku, and together, they needed to find a way to get him back into his body.

When he finally saw his apartment complex above the swell of the hill, he desperately hoped that Riku would be wandering around in his living room, but he knew that the possibility of that would be slim to none. In fact, when he slid into his house knowing that he wouldn't be there, Sora was surprised at how disappointed he found himself anyway.

Perhaps to feed some nascent stubbornness, he found himself rummaging through his apartment. He searched his room, the closets, and the kitchen. He hunted through the bathroom, the shower, and even the drawers. He felt a bit ridiculous peeking under the rugs, but he did so anyway just to make sure. Home thoroughly investigated, yet no evidence of his ghostly friend presented itself.

Winded, Sora threw himself on his couch and began furiously chewing his nails. He had to find Riku, mainly because they needed to work together, but also to apologize for letting his emotions get the better of him earlier. If something terrible happened and he was never able to see Riku again, he wouldn't be able to rest knowing that an argument would be among the last things they had said to each other.

He refused.

Searching his mind for some kind of idea as to where he might be, he remembered all of Riku's usual local preferences: His apartment and the harbor.

Sora rolled his eyes as he pulled himself off of the couch. He sincerely hoped that Riku was at his apartment. It was safe there, but more importantly, it wasn't the harbor. The thought of going there made his stomach turn, and a creepy feeling race up his arms and legs. Riku may have enjoyed the ever present sense of danger that it offered, but Sora much preferred to stay as far away from it as possible.

Now energized, he headed out into the dark again, this time setting out for Riku's apartment.

* * *

Please remember to offer feedback if you have a moment! Chapter 12 will be up shortly.


	12. Locks and Keys

**Chapter 12: Locks and Keys**

* * *

"Ugh, it is completely disgusting here." Axel said, waving his hand over his nose as the boat neared the harbor on Destiny Islands. During the night it was a swift, efficient assembly line of grunting men heaving unmarked cargo. During the day, it was a writing cluster of fish mongers and their ambiguously dated catches hollering to potential customers and shipping crew members alike. The smell was overwhelming. "Let's turn back."

"Let's go," Xemnas muttered. He was beginning to lose his patience. The trip to the harbor had been a bitter, painful, nightmarish torture of unnecessary chatter, bickering, and idiocy, all of which occurred between Axel and Seifer. At one point, Axel threatened to throw Seifer overboard, and Xemnas didn't even have to look behind him to know that he was being serious. It wasn't until land was finally spotted that the two of them had managed to calm down enough to become civil. At this point Xemnas was exhausted, and deeply considering whether all of this was even necessary anymore. After all, Axel did mention that all of this had occurred at night, discretely in the back of a warehouse. If he just let this matter get swept underneath the rug like so many others had been in the past, he could just wrap up the morning with a trip back to his office, a strong cup of coffee laced with an adult beverage, and call the day a bust.

Then he heard Axel and Seifer bickering behind him about where the boat should be secured to the dock.

Perhaps the beverage would just have to wait. Teaching those two a valuable lesson in responsibility had just become vastly more important than his own comfort. He gritted his teeth and steered the vessel to an unoccupied area of the dock just as the sun was about to set. Hating his decision to hire _all _of them, Xemnas barked out orders to tether the vessel to the dock to Axel, Rai, and Seifer, then hopped off.

Their actions came unnoticed, just as Xemnas hoped they would. The mongers were too busy trying to sell their fish, and the loaders were too busy trying to ignore them. If all went well, the whole affair could be wrapped up in a matter of hours.

Xemnas turned to Seifer with an unamused expression. "Where is he?"

"Oh right," Seifer rubbed the back of his head. "Back here. I'll show you." He led Xemnas, Rai, and one very agitated Axel through a maze of boxes, tables, fish and other pungent fixtures. A particularly gruesome splash of fish innards decorated the side of a nearby cooler containing hand-packed beverages, and Seifer willed the contents of his stomach to stay where they were. If he never saw the harbor again after today, it would _still_ be too soon.

As he led, he kept sparing glances back towards Xemnas. Though the trail was somewhat lengthy, his supervisor's expression remained neutral. Perhaps he was pleased that Seifer bothered to obtain such an obscure location. These could be precious bonus points that he was accruing, and he would do anything to keep himself as far above Demyx's old position as possible.

The rusted finish of warehouse A-3 suddenly made its appearance in front of them, and Seifer found himself repulsed. He hadn't remembered the place looking so shabby at night, but during the daytime he could clearly see why it had been abandoned. Despite the spider's webs and insect carcasses that wrapped the building tightly like some kind of horrific wall paper, rust, mold, and strange unidentifiable green patches still managed to penetrate the silk and carapace barrier to make the building look more like the a crypt at a haunted mansion than a warehouse. He wrinkled nose.

Xemnas looked at him expectantly.

Seifer swallowed.

Axel put a hand on his hip. "Open 'er up."

Seifer grimaced as he looked at the garage door, a door he had at one point touched. "Aren't you going to help me?"

"Nope."

Seifer snorted. "I was talking to Rai. Let's go."

Rai silently followed, and ended up pulling the garage door up by himself as Seifer watched on. The sick feeling was still being fought in his stomach, but at least his hands were still clean.

As the door opened, Axel immediately put a preparatory hand over his nose. "Great," he said, his voice muffled by part of his sleeve. "He's probably rotting in there by now. This is so disgusting I don't even have words."

Rai sent a panicked glance at Xemnas. "Is he really? How can we put someone back inside a rotting corpse, y'know?"

Xemnas rolled his eyes. "Ritual 221. You all are clearly in need of a refresher course. Show me where the body is."

Seifer nodded, still unsure of how well he was going to handle revisiting the body he had placed there, but he did as he was told, leading Xemnas through the array of crates and misplaced objects on the floor.

"Here we are," he said at last, pointing towards the tower of boxes that somehow looked a lot neater than he remembered placing them. He shrugged and moved two of them to reveal Riku's shoe.

Axel made a gagging sound in the back of his throat.

Xemnas helped him clear the remaining boxes, where Riku's body was draped across the ground in a dusty and bruised heap. If Xemnas hadn't been used to Saix's far more _colorful_ messes, he might have had a similar reaction to Axel. As it was, his face remained cooly indifferent. "Well," he said with a huff, eyeing the body. "You certainly didn't hold back."

"It was a group effort," Seifer wheezed out, mind wandering to how safe it might be for all of them to be in such close proximity to the deceased. More than the actual health implications, he was bothered by how creepy it felt. "What would you like us to do now, sir?"

"Nothing. Stand there for a moment."Xemnas walked past the two of them, stepping over the crates and dusty floor boards to examine Riku a bit closer. Axel didn't bother to withhold his disgust as Xemnas lifted one of his arms, tested for joint movement, and examined various pulse points. Satisfied, he stepped back, and replaced the crates, entombing Riku just as he had been before the four of them had arrived.

"Eh, what's going on, sir?"

Xemnas looked at Seifer and nodded. "It seems the body is still in good enough condition to be a brought back to life once again."

"Great." Axel shoved his hands in his pockets. "Can we get a move on with this freak-show circus act?"

"Not yet. We're missing a vital component."

Axel rolled his eyes. "What? Tape?"

"Hardly." Xemnas turned to Seifer. "You're sure it's been less than a day since you…did this?"

Seifer nodded enthusiastically. "Yes sir."

"Good. Then he shouldn't have gotten far."

"Eh…who shouldn't have?"

Xemnas cleared his throat, hoping that this concept could be explained in a matter of minutes. He was becoming increasingly more concerned with this particular group's lack of knowledge. It was decided that a few mandatory training sessions were to be set up immediately after their return, and he would take great delight in informing the other Organization members who inspired the need. An early morning seminar about the importance of attentiveness would certainly do a satisfactory job of beating down some particularly strong pride, and if that didn't, Larxene would.

"Riku," Xemnas began, hoping that this explanation wouldn't take a lot of time. "Riku's ghost."

Xemnas was surrounded by a ring of dropped jaws.

He sighed, hope dashed. "The shell, his body is here, but this is merely a vessel. We need Riku himself to be present in order to bring him back."

"You mean there are two people inside a person? Like, there are two of me, y'know?"

"No, not at all." Xemnas closed his eyes. "Imagine a robot. It has a body, parts that are able to move, a head, legs, arms. Be that as it may, without a power source, it is merely an inanimate object. We are looking for that source of animation, the _animate_. The typical form of this resembles a transparent, colorless image of the individual who has passed, or, in common terms, a ghost."

Rai started gurgling, and rubbing his arms. "There are ghosts running around? Watching us? I don't like that, y'know?"

"I should hope not, unless you've taken liberty to do away with _more_ people without telling me." He scanned Seifer and Rai's expressions to make sure that this was not the case before continuing. "Ritual 61 and 226 are responsible for this separation, and, if done correctly, are strictly limited to the individual that you have terminated."

Rai didn't look at all eased by the news, but nodded anyway. "So what do we have to do?"

"Find him."

Axel leaned against a nearby crate and folded his arms. "How exactly are we supposed to find a ghost? They're not exactly known for being easy to find. He could be anywhere, sliding between walls, possessing people, messing with lights…"

Xemnas nodded. "That is the unfortunate truth of the matter. However, given that you three were part of the group that killed him, you may possess an ability to locate him."

"Which would be?"

"Aside from me, you very well might be among the few who are able to see him."

"You mean that's optional?"

Xemnas nodded. "A body's animate can be very fickle, which is why I prefer to deal with them as infrequently as possible. They aren't visible to people under normal circumstances, which makes tracking them down without the aid of a clairvoyant tricky. They do, have a tendency to make inadvertent links to the physical world with things of great importance to them. In some cases those links are pets, family, and even those who murdered them."

Seifer rubbed his suddenly cold hands together. "What? I can see ghosts now?"

"This one, yes."

"Great." Axel muttered. "So, we have to find this kid's ghost that we may or may not be able to see so you can put him back in his body like a turkey sandwich in a Tupperware dish. Sounds like fun."

Xemnas couldn't help the tiny smirk that spread across his face. "It should be quite the adventure. Do take it seriously, though. Don't damage it. Animates are more fragile than they look." He made sure that he stared pointedly at Axel. "If you don't find him, he may decide to haunt you for the rest of your life."

Rai let out a loud moan, but Axel looked indifferent. "You're really doing your best to make this an enjoyable outing, aren't you?"

Xemnas chuckled and chose a corner to wait in while the three of them ventured out to scour the island. "Being a mirthless scout leader is a heavy burden to bear, but I am willing to sacrifice your joy for an efficient, and well-organized resolution."

"Hmph. Scout leader." Axel shoved Seifer hard in the shoulder, and stepping back to avoid Seifer's counter assault. "Any idea where we might find him, or is that all up in the air, too?"

Xemnas lifted his arms in a shrug. "Often, animates prefer places with which they have some familiarity: home, places of work, etcetera."

Axel rolled his eyes. "Would you happen to know where those places are?"

"I might have an idea."

"Are you going to share with the class, or is it more fun for you to be cryptic and stingy?"

Xemnas took great displeasure in being addressed in such a manner, but to save on the amount of time it would take to bestow an effective scolding, he withheld commentary on the matter. "Since you seem to be so enthusiastic about ghost hunting, I'll leave the main part of the island all to you. Seifer, check Riku's apartment. Rai…" he looked over at the timid looking trainee and sighed. "You can search the harbor. Don't wander off too far."

Axel grimaced. "You're a sadist," he spat and stormed out of the warehouse. Seifer didn't look pleased either, but he left quietly, leaving Rai and Xemnas alone.

Rai sheepishly looked over at Xemnas, who leaned against a nearby wall, eyes closed, mind reveling in the silence. Rai gulped hard, and backed away. Since Seifer had done his best to make sure that Xemnas hated him, Rai was determined to win himself some redeeming points while he was alone. He felt for a knife in his pocket, and gripped it with his fingers. As quietly as he could, he left the warehouse and began stalking the docks for a renegade ghost.

* * *

Sora was huffing and puffing by the time he reached Riku's apartment. He ran all the way there, but didn't have time to appreciate his physical skill, as he was still worried about what kind of trouble Riku may have gotten himself into. Neither one of them proved to be the most rational people when they were upset—or bored—and since he hadn't remembered a time that Riku had ever been this upset, he was a bit worried as to what this could mean. Would he just wander around until he withered away? Would he try to find his own way back into his body? Would it be as reckless as the way he had gotten _out _of it? Sora could not let any of those outcomes occur, not while he was still able to do something about it. He and Riku had grown a bit apart, but he was determined now more than ever to restore their friendship to the vibrant beacon of greatness that it once was, starting with finding Riku's ghost and getting it back into his body.

Riku's apartment was in a complex similar to Sora's: a few stories of blank white walls and identical looking windows that faced stairwells with chipping paint and splintering wood. He headed up one of the stair cases, its location memorized after frequent visits years ago that had recently become less frequent, and walked his way to where he knew Riku's apartment was.

Room 173.

He looked at the white wood of the door, and the golden numbers, the small lamp that lit the corridor, remembering when he used to hang out with Riku here, play video games, and make Riku cook for him. They were good times, before Sora had started working for _The Filter_, and before Riku started working at the harbor. Their friendship had been simple, effortless, uncomplicated with things like time, priorities, and…death.

Sora remembered how he would come over on the weekends during the early afternoons, drag Riku out of bed and together they would wreak havoc on the ice cream sold by the vendors on the pier. His visits used to be such a frequent occurrence, that Riku used to just leave the door unlocked. Sora had insisted that this was an unsafe practice, so if he remembered correctly, Riku had left him a safer option of entry.

Pushing himself on his hands and knees, he slipped his hand beneath the welcome mat for a tin metal nail file that he knew Riku kept there. Snatching it up, and feeling a bit like a criminal, he used it to pry one of the glass slats away from the lamp. Buried beneath the powdery layer of insect carcasses, was the key. It brought Sora some comfort to know that Riku hadn't been angry enough to remove the key from its hiding place—provided that he had even come back here—and he hastily pushed it into the lock. Turning it hard, he pushed the door open and hoped that some sign of Riku would present itself: a surprised yell, a general exclamation of hatred for Sora, even a light floating through a wall.

The living room was empty, but Sora was not about to give up. He kicked his shoes off and entered, somewhat uncomfortable at the darkness of the room, and the way in which the moon basted only the couch in a stream of iridescent light. The light reminded him of Riku in his current form, pale, ghostly, and haunting.

As he meandered through the living room, he couldn't help but survey some of Riku's belongings. He had never really been one for keeping mass quantities of _stuff_, as Sora had been the only member of his current group of friends who he felt had a true appreciation for material items, but even though he understood the differences between his own clutter and Riku's minimalist preferences, the space still looked empty.

The gaming system that the two of them used to dedicate hours to was tucked beneath Riku's small television, seemingly having been untouched for quite some time. The remotes were neatly arranged on a coffee table that had apparently not seen much use either. In fact, the only indication that the living room was ever _lived in_ was the deep indentions of a body on the couch. Sora remembered Riku telling him that he had slept there often, especially when nights at the harbor had been particularly rough. Sora wondered if Riku had slept there during before his recent trip to work, the day before he died.

Looking away from the couch, he wandered to Riku's kitchenette, clean, but a bit dusty from disuse. Sora wondered if Riku cooked for himself anymore. Did he still know how to make double chocolate milkshakes the way he used to, when Sora would goad him into it during one of their more intense video gaming sessions? Sora knew that it had been some time since he had come over, but did that mean that he stopped treating _himself_? Curious, and feeling the tiniest bit bad, Sora pried open Riku's refrigerator to view his food supply.

Milk, eggs, a few random condiments and processed meat made up the bulk of Riku's refrigerated items; however the cabinets did not yield much better options in terms of quality. Sora himself also hosted a refrigerator comprised of foods he wouldn't actually have to cook, but that was only because every time he started the stove, he could be fairly certain something was going to catch on fire. Riku didn't have that problem. It seemed strange that Riku was living these days on cereal and dubiously fresh eggs. Sora wondered if this had anything to do with his hours down at the harbor, or had he just lost interest in the effort it took to cook. Regardless, his meager food supply was pathetic, and Sora decided that once all of this was over, he was going to make a better effort to come visit, if only to get Riku to eat something more exciting than cereal.

Riku had yet to make an appearance, so he headed back through the living room, down the hallway towards his bedroom.

It was dark, as the curtains were drawn and left only a meager sliver of moonlight in over the bed. Sora swallowed hard, afraid to enter, but even more afraid to turn on the lights, he settled on calling his name into the darkness.

There was no reply.

From what he could tell, the bed was made, but there was no sign that it had been occupied any time recently. The room was empty. This meant that Sora had been right about Riku sleeping the couch, but it also meant that even ghost-Riku hadn't been inside.

Sora didn't give up. This house, the emptiness, the dust…it made him feel even more sorrowful for the state of things. The change between daily visits to each others' houses to now sporadic impromptu medical treatments at Sora's apartment had been a gradual, but he was sorry to see that it took Riku's death for him to realize that this was what their friendship had come to. When he found Riku, things were going to change.

In a similar fashion, Sora checked the bathroom, the closets and even a few of the cabinets, calling for Riku when he felt like he was being particularly invasive. Other than receiving a massive blast from the past, and a sinking feeling about a friendship that he had at one point considered infallible, the trip had been unfruitful. Riku was nowhere to be found.

Resisting the urge to cry out in frustration, he checked Riku's apartment off his mental list of places to visit. He was excited to leave, as wandering around in the dark, empty space bothered him in more ways than one, but that meant there was another place he was forced to check, a place that he had hoped to avoid.

Sora closed his eyes to mentally prepare himself for the trip down the harbor, and hoped with all of his might that he wouldn't have to do much hunting. The likelihood of running into trouble was already high when going to the harbor, but the likelihood of running into it skyrocketed when going at night.

With one final preparatory breath, he headed for the door, pulled on his shoes, and felt for Riku's spare key in his pocket.

He twisted open the door.

What he was met with, though, was not just a gust of cool night air.

Before him stood a young man wearing a long, hooded black coat. He looked to be about the same age as Sora, tall, pale, and crowned with a shock of blond hair that looked to be styled for a magazine.

A long, slanting scar ran from the top corner of his right eye brow to his left cheek bone.

A lock-picking kit was in his right hand.

He was not smiling.

Sora felt his hands get a clammy, and he licked his lips before responding. He'd never seen this person before, and if he had come all the way over here to see Riku in the middle of the night with an effort to break in, it probably meant that trouble wasn't far from sight.

"Uh, can I help you?" Sora tried to make the sentence sound as natural as possible, and act as if he hadn't seen the lock picking kit, but even he couldn't keep the nervous warble out of his voice.

The man looked up, blue eyes scrunching up in irritation. "Who are you?"

"I'm sorry?"

A gloved hand came up to massage the scar, and he groaned something about _Xemnas not telling him about a roommate_, before he let out a long sigh. He pocketed the kit and looked to be fishing his mind for something suitable to say. "Sorry," he said at last, thrusting his hand forward. "You caught me off guard."

"Eh…? That's…okay?" Sora wasn't sure of what to do, so he took the proffered hand and shook it with unease.

The man retracted it and shoved both hands in his pockets. "I'm Seifer. Question for you. Do you know where I can find Riku?"

Sora _knew_ this was the start of the trouble revealing itself. Maybe Roxas hadn't been too far off the mark about the group of thugs trying to chase them down. He just wasn't sure why they were here if they knew that Riku was already dead. He cleared his throat. "Can I ask who you are?"

"That's none of your—!" Seifer realized that he was starting to yell, so he cleared his throat and tried again. "I mean, I'm eh…I'm a friend. We work down at the harbor together. I'm trying to find him."

"Oh." That sealed it. Riku didn't have any friends down at the harbor. That was one of the reasons he liked it so much. "Is that so?"

Seifer looked as though he had just stepped on a rock. "…Eh, more like an acquaintance. Anyway, do you know where I can find him?"

"Well, he's not here," Sora said honestly. "Can I take a message for you?"

"Only if you'll see him…which I doubt. Don't worry about it. I'll just eh…check back at the harbor. Thanks."

Sora nodded and watched as he headed down the steps, kicking a rock as he cleared the landing.

Sora had already decided that he didn't like what this person was up to, especially since he was trying to break into the apartment, and it was further proven by how the conversation had gone. Sora himself was about to head to the harbor as well, but now he had even more of a reason to now that this strange coated man had shown up. He narrowed his eyes as he watched between the slats of the wooden stairs as he disappeared behind the swell of the hill.

Then he slipped out of the apartment, locked the door behind him, and followed.


	13. Fade

**Warnings: **Violence…kind of.

**Chapter 13: Fade**

* * *

Riku sat inside an empty crate.

Even thinking about it made Riku annoyed with himself. _Why_ he decided to sit inside the crate as opposed to on top of it, or against it, or even draped around it would forever be beyond him—it wasn't that he really needed to hide from anything—but there he was, sitting crouched in the dark space like a shipment of contraband ready to be put on a boat.

He pulled his knees tightly into his body and pushed his head into them so that he wouldn't have to look at himself, his hollowness, his transparency. He had really messed up this time, he thought bitterly, hugging his knees and hating himself for it. This was cowardly.

He hadn't meant to stir up so much trouble that night. Things just happened, and while he knew that somewhere in the back of his mind that one day something like this would happen, he never would have guessed it would take place so soon. What had he been thinking all this time? Did he just expect to be the King of the Harbor, that his fists could carry him through any skirmish that came his way? Did he ever stop to think just once, that maybe, just maybe someone would come along with more power than he could handle, and that he would be regretting that fight for the rest of his life?

The truth was that he hadn't thought at all, and now, here he was sitting in a crate, trying to hide from the world over a mistake that he was too ashamed of to face the night air.

A horn blew somewhere in the distance, signaling the arrival of a boat. He imagined it coming into the harbor, wisps of ocean water sliding across the bow as crew members scurried to tether it to the dock. There would be a crew of one or two men at the harbor, loading or unloading the packages, then sending the ship off into the night, waiting patiently until the next arrival.

His supervisor, Riku thought bitterly, would be foaming at the mouth once he saw that Riku wasn't going to show up that evening. He would probably have a similar expression when he neglected to show up the evening after that, or the evening after that. After about a week or so, he would just assume Riku had met an unfortunate accident on the dock and had fallen into the harbor, or maybe think he'd finally lost his nerve and decided to pursue a saner occupation. It was one less pay check he'd have to shell out, one less body to account for.

Riku didn't know how he felt about being forgotten so easily, no search party, no fuss. He knew that he was partly glad, after all, mourning for others wasn't something that Riku particularly enjoyed, and he couldn't expect them to want to do the same for him. A quiet end to his career at the harbor was really for the best, not that he had the option of it any other way. If he was going to be remembered at all, he would rather it not be as 'that youngish looking kid who puts boxes on boats and punches things for fun.'

But that was how things were at his job. There was an entirely different matter with his personal life.

Riku hadn't really been one to make many friends—he wasn't comfortable in most social situations, and his relationship with his family was mutual indifference at best. His only interaction with people outside of his current circle was with people he was forced to share pleasantries with at the grocery store, or the few members of the shipping crew that he had to grunt out moving instructions with when they were loading boxes. He didn't have complaints. He had a few friends, and that was enough.

But what did all of this mean for them?

Roxas and he weren't especially close, but after a while, he was sure he would eventually start to wonder what happened to 'that guy with the hair,' and enquire about his untimely termination.

Kairi had made her stance on the matter—or rather, whatever matter Sora had explained to her—pretty clear when he was listening in on their conversation back at the café. She would probably worry the most. How would she find out? What would she say? Would she tell him that she knew this was going to happen? Would she be sad?

And then there was Sora.

Riku stared at the wooden walls that made up the crate, and concentrated on his fist. When he felt his fingers tingle, he punched the wood as hard as he could, satisfied at the cold sting that ran up his transparent arm, but disheartened with the knowledge that the moment he lost concentration, his fist would once again slide through the wood as easily as light through a window.

Sora.

Sora was where he had messed up the most, he thought bitterly. This was where he became truly sorry for the harbor, the fighting, his life, and Sora's unfortunate role in it at this point.

Sora had seen what had become of him, and unlike with the others, had the displeasure of witnessing what a man-turned-ghost really looked like, how pathetic and miserable it made a person. He remembered the look on Sora's face when he entered his apartment the other night, pale and clammy, translucent and eerie, the stuff of nightmares.

He remembered their conversation earlier, how both of them had lost a best friend over this, how being what he once was could, realistically, never happen again. It was at that moment that Riku thought of all of the things that had gone wrong in their relationship, how the two of them had steadily drifted apart over the years, nothing more than nurse and patient now. Well, he supposed _nurse and patient_ wasn't an accurate comparison of their relationship how. That was when he was alive. Now it was a psychic and ghost connection; Riku was tied to the physical world with no more strength than a hologram on a projector, and it was just a matter of time until the power went out.

There were so many things Riku wanted to change now, he thought, feeling his eyes burn, and his stomach twist into an uncomfortable knot. He wanted to go back, back to when he and Sora had first started drifting and stop himself. Before the harbor had wedged something akin to a blunt axe between the two of them.

His mind had a terrible way of bringing up things well after it was too late, he thought angrily.

Another horn sounded in the distance, marking the arrival of another vessel. He wondered what kind of cargo it would yield. Would there be another group of seedy looking mobsters willing to start fights with the shipping crew? Would there be a load of dubiously legal cargo stowed within it to be delivered to an obscure warehouse at the back of the harbor?

He poked his head out of the crate, not surprised that he couldn't feel the cool night breeze on his skin. It was impossible to when air went right through him. The moon was high in the sky, the stars twinkling beneath a smattering of clouds. The insects were at a minimum, and from what he could tell, the only activity this evening was occurring around him; the smooth, practiced waltz of the crew loading and unloading boxes, and the gentle slide of the waves against the dock when the vessels came in. It was nights like these that he had enjoyed when he was alive.

He stood and pushed himself through the crate, stretching his arms in an interpretation of the real thing—he didn't have muscles to stretch anymore—and looked around him. His coworkers were staggered throughout the docks, unloading dollies, barking out crude commands to the ship crew, tying lines. He would give anything to be back among them, working with the body that was currently stashed in warehouse A-3, feeling the burn in his muscles, and the ache in his back. Because then, when the shift was over, and he was tucking his gloves in his back pocket and basking in the steadily rising sun, he could announce to his supervisor that he no longer intended to work there. It wouldn't make him happy of course, but Sora would be thrilled, and he could guarantee that he would live to see the next day and not be beaten to death by a host of gangsters.

He looked about the harbor a bit more, scanning the place for more memories to latch onto, when he noticed something curious on the dock a far distance away to the left.

Well, he thought, tilting his head as he squinted to get a better look. He hadn't expected to see _that_ guy anytime soon. The blond hair and thick black coat were all the clues Riku needed to recognize Seifer. One didn't easily forget the man that killed the, he supposed.

He was trudging up the dock with his hands shoved deeply in his pockets, as though he had just accrued a massive debt that he didn't have the money to pay back.

Riku watched on with interest, and saw that Seifer wasn't heading back to a boat, but rather, headed to an area deeper into the harbor towards the warehouses. He hadn't expected Seifer to be hack into the shipping business so quickly after their skirmish the other night, but then again, Riku didn't really expect to have the skirmish in the first place. He did wonder though, what business he had back near the warehouses. Perhaps he was helping retrieve the cargo he had helped load the other night. Riku had, until now, considered the heavy shipment as nothing more than a prop used to more convincingly coax Riku into the warehouse, but if they had gone through all the trouble of making the packages heavy, he supposed it made sense for them to be of some use.

He was about to turn away and continue staring out into the night, when something else caught his eye.

A few meters behind, slinking along the crates and machinery like a poorly trained spy was a very familiar person, someone who _definitely_ had no business being at the harbor.

Sora.

He felt his ghostly stomach sink to the ground, mind filling with questions as to why he could possibly have reason to be there, but when he saw Sora duck around the same corners as Seifer had, he realized that watching from afar was simply not an option. Sora was following him. He threw himself from the crate and headed after the two of them.

* * *

Sora had no idea what he was doing, but it didn't feel good admitting it to himself. He cursed himself half a dozen times while he had followed Seifer down the road, and was now repeating the exercise now that he was hopelessly trampling around the harbor, a place he hadn't wanted to come in the first place.

He knew though, that he couldn't just let Seifer escape. There was something about him that made him uncomfortable, and only part of it was related to the ambiguity of his relationship with Riku. He didn't like the look in his eyes, or the strange way he skirted around Sora's questions. Sora had no doubt that he knew _something_, and if there was enough luck left in the reserves of Sora's life, he might have some information about what had happened to Riku the other night, and could lead him to the key to getting him back to normal.

At least, that was what he hoped, as he rounded another corner, taking great care to remain hidden. If he ended up getting caught, he didn't even want to think about the amount of trouble he'd be in, and he just may end up in the same position as Riku.

Keeping that thought well in mind, he ducked behind a crate as Seifer paused to look about. He didn't think he had been spotted, but he held his breath anyway. Seemingly satisfied, Seifer pressed forward with his strange, maze-like trail through the docks, and Sora followed, hugging every obstruction as tightly as possible.

Seifer stopped again and ran a hand down his forehead, staring up at the moon in such a way as to howl at it. He growled, cursed, and stomped his foot, a clear expression of rage. At what, Sora wasn't sure.

"Hey, you're yelling, y'know?"

A voice came from Sora's immediate left, and he scrunched in between two crates just in time to see two feet walk past him. Sora had been too focused on following Seifer to even consider the possibility of more strangely hooded men, or more importantly, recognize that they could be within the area, too. He crushed himself between the crates as tightly as he could without breaking bones and listened.

"Ugh, Rai," Seifer groaned. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Xemnas asked me to keep an eye on the area, y'know? Just in case that guy comes back, y'know?"

"Well, hopefully you and Axel have had more luck." Seifer sat himself down on top of a nearby crate supporting a large coil of rope. "I went to his house and ran into his roommate."

"Did he know where he was?"

"Obviously not," Seifer huffed, eyes narrowed at Rai. "We'd be back on the boat home if I did. Besides, it's not like I could just ask him if he's seen any especially bratty looking ghosts today. _That _sounds normal."

Rai shrugged. "Better than nothing, y'know?"

Sora had to stop himself from gasping. So these two _did_ know something about what had happened to Riku. He tried to continue to listen, but his heart was beating loudly in his chest, hammering in his hears. If he kept listening long enough, they might reveal a key to the solution, and that was more valuable than stretching out his sore limbs, or thinking about how degrading it was to be crunched between two crates like a lost battery. He tilted his head at an angle, to help his hearing, and listened further.

"I'll tell you what's better than nothing," Seifer grumbled. "Finding that idiot and going home. Did you find anything here at the dock?"

"Nope," Rai admitted. He had tried his best to do an exemplary job at patrolling, but every now and then he had to stop to watch over his shoulder and will the goose bumps from his arms. The thought of running after a ghost in the middle of the night ignited a fear within him not so unlike that which he experienced with Xemnas. He didn't particularly like things he was unable to attack by physical means. He cleared his throat at the memory of being nearly scared out of his skin by a renegade moth that had landed on his shoulder, and continued. "I haven't seen anything."

"Great." Seifer hunched his shoulders. "This is just getting better and better. If Axel doesn't produce something good, then we're all going to be in massively hot water."

"What do you think the chances are of him finding him, y'know?"

Seifer scoffed. "Do you even have to ask? This is Axel we're talking about. We might as well just throw ourselves at Xemnas's feet and beg for forgiveness now." He punctuated the hopelessness he felt by putting his head into his hands. "This day is the worst ever."

"What do you think we should do now, y'know? If we can't find the ghost, then what?"

Seifer shrugged, face still obscured by his hands. "Who knows? We can't just leave the body in there forever. We'll probably have to find some place to burn it, then pour the ashes on some deserted island. Ugh, it's going to take so much time!"

Rai trembled at the thought. "Anything but that, y'know? I could barely handle killing him in the first place. I can't burn anybody, y'know?"

"It's not like he'll be able to feel it."

Sora had to clamp his hand over his mouth to keep from gasping, which proved to be very painful given the position of his elbow against the wooden crate. More than knowing something about what had happened to Riku, they were the ones who _caused _it. Swallowing the fact that he was eavesdropping on murders was one thing, but fully comprehending that they were planning to make the job permanent—well, _more _permanent—was another. If they were planning on getting rid of Riku's body, then Riku wouldn't have a body to go back to. He couldn't let it get to that point, not after all the suffering he had gone through to make it this far. He and Riku were going to find a way to get him back to normal, and he refused to let these two ruin that possibility.

Seifer sighed heavily and peered through his fingertips at Rai. "Let's just get this over with and tell Xemnas. I'll scrounge up some matches."

"Wait," Rai interjected, his previous statement obviously having been ignored. "Why don't we just wait for Axel to get back, y'know?"

Seifer snorted. "What's the point? Besides, we both know how much he loves to set things on fire. If the only positive out of this whole experience is denying Axel of what he loves most, then I'll consider it a successful evening. Get yourself together. We're leaving." Seifer grabbed Rai's arm and shoved him forward, hopping up himself in the process.

Sora felt his feet move before his brain could signal them that it was a horrible, horrible idea.

"Stop!"

Sora's voice carried over the harbor, echoing off of nearby scraps of metal, reverberating through metal boxes and down the docks. It apparently even had the force to disturb some of the sleeping wildlife, because a disgruntled flock of gulls bolted into the sky at the outburst.

Seifer's eyes widened, the scar between them turning silver in the moonlight.

Rai's face held a similar look of shock. "Who are you, y'know?"

Sora stared at the two of them, eyes shifting between Rai and Seifer like a tennis ball bouncing between sides of the court. To his body, this seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that his mind had caught up to what it was doing, the wheels of his mental automobile were spinning in the mud.

Two breaths passed before the surprise wore off Seifer, and he made the decision for Sora. "That's the roommate! He probably heard everything!"

"What do we do, y'know?"

"Idiot! Get him!"

Rai nodded quickly, pulling the knife from his pocket, Seifer following suit. They quickly lunged after Sora, eyes red with rage.

Sora's body, just as it had before, reacted before his mind could fully grasp what was happening, and he found himself running down the docks, over crates, random scraps of metal and rope. The careful trail he had followed Seifer through had been forgotten and banished through the wind. He was leaping over obstacles and noisily knocking over random tools and debris, and only in the back of his mind did he consider that he probably could have chosen a better way to handle this.

He looked behind him, Seifer and Rai were close, knives brandished, yelling like hounds on a fox hunt. When Seifer turned to mutter something unintelligible to Rai, Sora quickly turned back around and tried not to think about it. What in the world could he have possibly been thinking? If bad people were talking about bad things, it was generally a bad idea to reveal oneself as an eaves dropper. He kind of wanted to go back in time and kick himself, but at the moment his legs were very much occupied by running.

At the very least, he felt pleased that other people clearly had experience in dealing with ghosts, which meant that maybe there was a solution after all. Unfortunately, those very people were chasing him, and appeared to have the intent to light the very body Riku needed to return to on fire. He decided to just be thankful for the small positives, and continued running.

Then something else occurred to him, as he nearly missed clearing an anchor that had been carelessly left leaning against the outside of a warehouse. He was doing a fine job running for now, but he was going to have to stop at some point. Another reluctant look backward proved that they were far from willing to give up the chase any time soon, and as athletic as he liked to think of himself, there was a reason that Riku had won all of those races when they were children…

He swallowed and continued on, forcing himself onward, hoping that he may rouse the attention of some of the nearby loading crew; although by what Riku told him, they were content staying focused on their current tasks and would only bother to look up if someone had dropped dead across their feet…maybe. He was on his own, running around a harbor he didn't trust, with the attention of people who clearly had the capability of killing him, too.

He couldn't stop his neck from rotating towards his shoulder as he looked behind him again, just to see how much distance he had gained, or, the more likely occurrence, lost. What he saw though, almost made him stop in his tracks in confusion.

Seifer was still running after him at full force, but Rai was missing.

Sora threw himself around the corner of another warehouse and tried to think of a moment during the chase when he heard Rai trip, or announce that he was going to take a break. No such event revealed itself in Sora's memory. Maybe he had just fallen behind, Sora hoped with steadily increasing dread.

The answer to all made itself known as Sora sprinted across the small alley between two smaller warehouses, and he was knocked sideways, face coming in swift, immediate contact with the hard planks of wood on the ground. He saw stars dancing behind his eyelids for a brief moment before he forced them open, wondering what had happened to so completely knock him off balance.

What he found though, was where Rai had been.

Rai was sitting on top of him, knees pinning him to the ground, panting heavily. Apparently he and Seifer had coordinated the ambush, which would explain why he had been missing.

Groaning at his own disappointment at not having seen this coming, he struggled to force Rai off of him.

He didn't budge. Instead, he shifted to sit on Sora's legs and pin his arms down with his knees.

Seifer caught up in a few seconds, panting. He stepped around Sora's shoulder, he put both hands on his knees and started deeply sucking in precious air. "Man," he wheezed. "Took you long enough."

"Sorry! He's fast, y'know?"

Seifer, having caught his breath put up a hand to silence him. "Save it." He looked down at Sora. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? A spy? I don't take kindly to people meddling in business that's not their own."

Sora looked around frantically. Pinned down like this, he was helpless. Rai felt like a bull sitting on top of his limbs. "Wait a second!" Sora tried, his own lungs still burning from the run.

They ignored him. "What do we do with him? We can't just let him get away after hearing all that, y'know?"

"It should be obvious." He eyed the knife in Rai's hand.

Rai's face paled. "Doesn't this look just the slightest bit familiar, y'know?"

"Look at the big picture here," Seifer muttered. "With the other guy, Axel squealed on us. With this kid, we have no witnesses. If Xemnas finds out that we accidentally let _this,_" he indicated Sora with a tilt of his head, "kid find out about what we did, not only will both of us be terminated from the organization, but Axel will get the last laugh. I can't live with that."

Sora's heart started beating furiously in his chest. He thought a decision of this magnitude shouldn't be made so easily, and with such haste. "Wait!" He squirmed beneath Rai's weight. "You don't have to kill me! I won't tell anybody anything!" This was _not_ how expected the night to end. He may be joining Riku after all.

And if he did, he was going to kill him.

Rai looked down at Sora, then hesitantly at Seifer. "I don't like this, y'know? We can't just go around murdering people."

Sora nodded in ardent agreement.

"Hopefully this is the last one for a while. Think about it, Rai: we'll just get it over with, toss him in the ocean, and tell the boss that Axel failed to find the ghost. Done."

"Seifer…" Rai whined, eyes meeting Sora's, his heart breaking at the thought at being involved in yet another slaying—even though his own personal participation in the first was arguably minimal.

The hairs on the back of Sora's neck were starting to stand on end, and his limbs felt cold; only part of that was due to Rai's knees cutting off the circulation in his legs. He couldn't be killed; not yet. He was supposed to be _saving_ Riku, not adding to the ghost population. "Listen to me," he begged, unable to keep himself from squirming. "I won't tell anyone what I heard. We can just pretend that I didn't hear you!"

"Nice try, but no."

"I mean it," Sora whispered, eyes locking onto the knife firmly in Rai's hand. "Look, I don't want any trouble. I came here trying to help my friend. If you kill me, I won't be able to, and there's no way I'll be able to live with myself."

Seifer barked out a laugh. "Well, you won't really have to worry about that. You'll be dead."

"Only partially, y'know? Won't he wander around as a gho—"

"Shut up!" Seifer hissed, elbowing Rai in the chest. "We're not getting into that."

"Please," Sora whispered, feeling heat gather behind his eyes. He was petrified at the thought of executed, but even more than that, he was sorry that he wasn't able to get Riku back into his body, apologize for his words back at the café, and make up for so much lost time. Riku, wherever he was, was going to be stranded as a ghost, and the only person who could help him would be doomed to the same fate.

"Seifer," Rai said weakly. "I can't do it. Look at him…"

Seifer's eyes hardened, and he shoved Rai hard in the shoulder. "You're completely useless." He fished around in his pocket for his own knife and flipped out the blade. "I'll do it. Move."

"But Seifer—"

Seifer ignored Rai and lifted his hand high over his head. He offered Sora a small sheepish grin. "Sorry it had to turn out like this, kid."

Sora's eyes locked onto the cold metal, and when it moved swiftly down from its position high up in the air, he squeezed them closed. It was going to be a cruel end to a very, very hard day.

As the blade hastened towards his flesh, and Sora felt his chest tighten, two voices cut through the almost deafening sound of his pulse in his ears.

The first voice, he didn't recognize. It sounded irate and distinctly fiery.

The second was the familiar, velvety and smooth, just the right amount of cool. It was unearthly, strong, and confident. It was the voice of someone Sora had grown too far away from over the years, but could not be more perfect to comfort him in the present moment.

It was Riku.

Immediately, he felt coldness over his body, like the air at the onset of winter, and pressure not so dissimilar to having a book tossed on his chest. Sora's eyes snapped open. What he didn't find, however, was pain.

There was no pain, no blood, no knife plunged deeply into his gut.

There was only the haunting, yet familiar transparent outline that had become so much a part of his thoughts this past day; a body that had become similar in color and weightlessness to the moonlight, appearance identical to that of a best friend who had once been living.

It was Riku, and he was draped over him protectively, Seifer's hand stopping just short of Sora's sternum, the knife suspended in a transparent space that made up Riku's abdomen.

Sora's eyes widened, and he tilted his head just slightly, just enough to peer over Riku's shoulder at Seifer's face. His eyes were wide, his fingers clasped around the hilt of the knife were trembling.

Seifer released it, throwing himself backward into Rai, who shared a similar look of horror. Their jaws were hanging open, a silent scream.

The knife remained suspended in Riku's abdomen, and desperate confusion washed all over Sora's face. Riku was a ghost. He could pass through any object, and likewise, any object could pass through him. He had seen it take place many times, at his home, at the café…

Then he remembered the dancing sugar packets, the napkins Riku had used to taunt Roxas and Kairi…

"_If I concentrate, I can pick things up,"_ Riku had said in their apartment, the night Sora had discovered Riku's life was over. _"Like I have a physical body."_

Sora felt himself unable to form words. The knife hovered within Riku's body for a few more seconds, before it dropped harmlessly onto Sora's chest, and Riku fell through him, once again transparent.

Sora scurried backwards himself, gathering his legs underneath himself, unsure of what to do. "Riku," he said quietly, waiting for him to move. "Is that you?"

Riku remained silent for a second, then sat up, grinning at Sora, though weakly. "Huh," he said eyeing the knife. "I'm kind of surprised that worked."

"This…this is..." He shook his head, eyes not leaving the ghostly body before him. "Riku…where have you been all this time?"

Riku didn't say anything, his eyes held Sora's for a long moment, then they slowly slid downward where the knife had been. His fingers grazed over the spot, and when he moved them, a whisper of blue light trailed away from his body, disappearing into the air.

Sora followed the trail with his own eyes, then looked back at the source. More light poured away from Riku's body, disappearing into the night as though it had never been.

Alarm rang all of his senses.

Riku looked strangely tired.

"Great…" came a voice from a distance not too far away. Sora recognized it as one of the two voices that he heard earlier.

Seifer looked past Sora and Riku, and met the piercing green eyes of Axel, who looked to be so irate he could barely keep himself together. "What have you idiots done this time?!"

Seifer looked from Axel back to Sora and Riku. He too noticed the disappearing blue light, and in turn felt his own body stiffen in alarm. "Uh oh."

Axel looked as though he couldn't decide between tearing Seifer and Rai limb from limb, or running off to tattle on Xemnas.

More of the light trailed away from Riku's body, and as it did, it carried with it some of the brightness that made up his transparent form. Riku was beginning to dull, and its meaning was written all over Riku's face.


	14. Burn

**Chapter 14: Burn**

* * *

Axel chose let Xemnas deal with whatever punishment that would assuredly result from this latest botched job, and sprinted for warehouse A-3.

Seifer watched him run away, unable to pick himself off the ground. He spared a side look to Rai, whose face had taken on a hollow look. Seifer shifted his gaze back to Sora and Riku crouched just before him on the hard wood planks of the harbor, and the sinking feeling that sprouted in his stomach began to grow at an alarming rate. He had done it this time, he thought, a faint picture of Xemnas's displeased glower etching itself in his mind. Animates were delicate, Xemnas had said; take this seriously, he had said.

Things had somehow spread beyond his control, and a feeling of utter defeat began to creep through his bones, wringing out is pride like water from a dish towel. Axel had disappeared behind one of the warehouses, presumably A-3 where Xemnas was standing in wait for his fruitful return. The level of furiousness that Xemnas would unleash was not calculable in mortal quantities, and Seifer was met with the decision between sitting there and waiting, or the increasingly more attractive option of running for the hills in hopes that the day that he _was_ found, Xemnas would have cooled off enough to at least offer him a quick and painless end.

Rai's look of hollowness had intensified, and he knew it was because his eyes were fixated on the ghost before them steadily emptying light into the night sky. Seifer himself refused to grant the scene further attention. He had precious moments left before Xemnas's rage was ignited, and he didn't want to waste the time on unpleasantness. Gritting his teeth, he pulled himself to stand, grabbing for Rai with one hand, and for his knife with the other.

Pocketing the weapon, he turned to Rai and sighed. "We should go."

Rai looked at him in shock, eyes barely focused on Seifer long enough to acknowledge that he was being addressed. "What did we do, y'know? What's happened?"

Seifer shook his head. "We've screwed up again. We have a couple options here."

Rai's eyes were heavy with emotion, the most prevalent of which was fear. "What's that, y'know?"

"We can either confront Xemnas now, or run and wait for him to confront us later." As the words exited his mouth, they sounded dry, even to his own ears. "Your call."

"Which one has the better chance of a good outcome, y'know?"

Seifer shrugged. "'Bout even."

Rai nodded, his mind visibly peddling through possible conclusions to this catastrophic turn of events. He let out a heavy sigh. "We should probably just get it over with now, y'know?"

Seifer really didn't want to hear those words, but he knew that Rai had made the right choice. Furiously chewing the bottom of his lip, he stared off towards the distant warehouse, and started after Axel. Rai was close behind him.

Sora was left alone with Riku outside, a look of confusion etched across Sora's face as he watched the light steadily drain from Riku's transparent body. He dimly noted that Seifer and the rest had gone off somewhere, but his mind was so completely focused on the sight before him, and the steadily growing dread in the pit of his stomach that he had forgotten about their presence soon after.

"Riku," he said quietly, daring to scoot forward, watch as his friend studied the fleeting light with increasing fatigue. "What…just happened?"

Riku looked at him, lines in his face were drawn, but otherwise it held a similar look of incomprehension. "I can honestly tell you…I have no idea."

Sora crawled closer, eyes fixed on Riku's hands clutching his stomach as the light steadily wafted away from him. "What's happening to you?"

Riku shrugged. "Light's going out."

"Why?"

Riku narrowed his eyes. "I don't _know_ Sora. Let me just consult all the other ghosts I know and get back with you."

Sora ignored the sarcasm. "Has this happened before?"

Riku shook his head. "Not that I remember."

"Does it…hurt?"

Riku thought for a moment about this question, tilting his head to the side as he considered explaining just what he was feeling. "Not really, but I do feel…different."

Sora felt a chill race up his spine as he watched more of the light waft away. "Different how?"

Riku himself didn't know how to answer him. He had seen Sora following Seifer while he himself was some distance away on the other side of the harbor. Given that his own recent experiences with Seifer hadn't proved to be particularly helpful in the realm of good fortune, he thought it only right that he follow for a closer look. As he had expected things spiraled out of control pretty quickly—from the casual chatter about the fate of Riku's own physical body to Sora's grand yet idiotic outburst—and he saw no choice but to intervene.

He dove in front of Sora, just as he would have had he still been alive, a reflex he didn't even know that he had. It was like wincing, blinking, as natural to him as an involuntary function. Now though, as he was sitting there on the dock, wondering how his little 'concentration' trick was effective on more than just accoutrements at a coffee shop, wondering what all of this steadily streaming light meant, he was supposed to come up with some kind of reasonable explanation for what "different" meant.

He felt good—_good_-good. It the kind of good he hadn't felt in a while, since being dead didn't leave much room for much positivity of late. The selfishness he had felt earlier had decidedly been pushed away, and though he was mourning the loss of his body, he knew that the loss of a friendship because of it would be far more difficult of a burden to bear. Seeing Sora, helping him for a change as opposed to stealing his frozen vegetables and following him around at work lightened him, and that heavy feeling in his heart—a product of the guilt, he supposed—was slowly starting to leave him.

Overall, he was happy, at peace with the knowledge that through all of this he had done something good. It was different in a good way, different that made him wish that _different_ had happened a long time ago.

But then, there was another difference, only noticeable now while he was physically able to drift through walls and eavesdrop on conversations between Sora and Kairi. It was something he had considered grimly before, though admittedly not in great enough detail to imagine the abruptness in which it could occur.

And that difference, he realized, was the conception of his own finiteness.

He had envisioned, should the possibility of Sora and he not finding a way to unite him with his body become a reality, slowly drifting off into tiny translucent particles before dissolving into thin air, maybe a dramatic flash of light or two to signal his departure. A pleasant fog might roll in, and the starry night sky would be a pleasant backdrop to the whole event, adding the perfect touch of pomp and circumstance to an otherwise cheerless occasion. That would be that. One day he would just start to fade away, then _poof, _there would just be no more Riku, and Sora and the rest of his friends would move on, and he'd just be…gone.

Now though, as he was sitting here, previous expectations of fading away _fading away, _he realized that he had not considered the possibility of actually getting killed again as a method for his second death. The irony was not lost on him.

When he threw himself over Sora, not even remotely certain if he would be successful, and felt the knife slide through him, he recalled the odd tingly sensation that had somehow become such an integral part of his existence. It didn't hurt, but it did feel oddly invasive, like there was something inside him that wasn't supposed to be there. He supposed the walls held similar sentiments when he slid through them, so he didn't think much of it.

But then the strange light started to drain out of him, and he knew that all the _good_ different was starting to become _not-so-good_ different, and then he started feeling droopy and loopy and sleepy, and maybe, just maybe _different_ just might mean _dying._

He looked down at his hand, which had become fainter than what it should have been, and then there was more of the light wafting up into the sky. It hadn't occurred to him that a ghost could actually die, but he supposed the fact that it was happening was as good of poof of any to confirm that it could.

Riku didn't know how to put all of that into words, so he just stared at Sora for a long moment, and shrugged. "I dunno. I just feel different."

Sora didn't look at all satisfied with this answer, and if anything it intensified the horrified look on his face. "Riku," he said. "You're fading away."

"Yeah, I can kind of see that." He extended a hand to touch some of the light, and found that it tingled when it came into contact with the tips of his fingers. "It's probably a problem, huh?"

Sora's eyebrows angled themselves sharply downward, and he stood up. "Of _course _this is a problem! I'm not going to just sit here and watch you float off into the moonlight, not after all of this." Sora made a vague gesture to everything around him, but he was far less concerned with being specific, and more focused on finding a way to plug up the hole that was causing Riku to leak all over the atmosphere. "We need to go talk to those guys again."

Riku shook his head slowly, the ghost-version of fatigue becoming very apparent. "In case you didn't pick up on this earlier, they were the ones who tried to kill you. They're kind of good at doing that to people—killing them, I mean. I've seen their work first hand."

Sora shook his head. "They're the only ones we've seen who seem to know about your condition. I'm not just going to let them walk away."

"To be fair, they're the only ones who we've even investigated."

"We're not going to get hung up on technicalities. We don't have a lot of time."

Riku nodded, but found it difficult to pull himself off of the ground and into the air. He did so with relative difficulty, more of the light fading away as he moved. He tried not to change his facial expression much, but Sora's face told everything he was feeling. He didn't like it.

"We're going to follow them. Do you know where they went?"

Riku looked at Sora sideways and thought. His mental processing had slowed. "Eh…"

"Come on, they said they were going to confront someone named Xemnas. Does that ring a bell?"

"Never heard of him," Riku admitted, wanting nothing more than to sit back on the wooden planks and watch more of the light disappear.

Sora worried his lower lip with his teeth, and muttered something unintelligible under his breath. Riku watched the action with increasing disinterest, when suddenly, he snapped his fingers.

"Your body!" Sora shouted reaching to grab onto Riku's arm, but remembering very quickly that he couldn't. He shook away how uncomfortable it made him feel. "They're going to your body."

"Oh right, to burn it."

Sora rolled his eyes. "Well, if it's okay with you, let's stop them…from…doing that."

Riku shrugged. The light, or maybe it was the lack of it, was making him sleepy, so he agreed. "Okay."

"Cut it out. I need for you to wake up." Sora waved a hand through him to prove his point, and Riku responded by trying to open his eyes a little more.

"Let's go, then."

If Sora could, he would have pushed Riku forward, but since his hands would slide right through him, he was forced to follow behind at Riku's decreased speed. He felt bad for him, but even the tiniest boost in his current speed would do wonders for his frayed nerves. Time, just as rapidly as the light, was running out.

He followed him behind a few warehouses, then sharply turned where it looked as if the harbor had ended, and no other shipping related equipment remained to be.

"Where are we going? Are you lost?"

Riku ignored him and continued floating forward. Further ahead, there was another warehouse, dilapidated from time and lack of human care. It was warehouse A-3.

"Here we are," Riku said with a huff. "It's kind of disgusting in there. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Sora ran past him, the garage door to the facility was rusted, and covered in a layer of insect debris and filth. It was slightly raised from the ground as though someone had just entered. "In here? This is where your body is?"

"From what I remember."

"Then why are you just standing there? Let's go!"

Riku grimaced. He remembered what happened the last time he saw it, and wasn't thrilled about the prospect of revisiting the ghost version of queasiness. Something about seeing a dead body, particularly one's own, tended to do that to a person, and he wasn't feeling the best right then _anyway_…

Sora made the decision for him though, and dove through the crack in the door. Riku rolled his eyes and followed.

Riku had half expected the building to be lit up in flames at that point, so when he saw four identically cloaked men—two of which he had become very familiar with—arguing with each other instead, he was a bit taken off guard. Behind them, he saw the body he had left behind, still obscured by a few crates, but now neatly arranged on the ground. Bruises decorated his face and arms; his clothes were ripped and dirty.

It was _him _alright.

Riku turned away, certain that if he continued to look he would throw up the remaining light in his body, and end it all right there. Sora noticed the motion however, and his eyes too landed on the hollow vessel that Riku had once occupied. Despite being largely bothered by the sight of a lifeless body, his relief in the fact that it hadn't been torched beyond recognition overrode it. He couldn't suppress a quiet exclamation of joy.

Riku slapped his hand to his face. The four sets of eyes immediately turned in his direction though—because Sora just _couldn't_ be quiet to save his life—halting their bickering.

Only temporarily.

Axel's green eyes gave them a once over, then he ignored them and focused his attention back onto Seifer. "You are a complete waste of space in this organization!" He gestured toward Riku with an outstretched gloved hand, and turned to glare furiously at Xemnas. "Do you see what I was talking about? Seifer broke him, and now someone _else_ is involved. If he stays, I quit."

Seifer opened his mouth to protest, but realized that he didn't have much to say on the matter. The truth was that he _had_, and that he was going to have to pay dearly for it. He swallowed and closed his mouth, waiting for Xemnas' response.

Xemnas was silent, shifting his gaze from the outraged Axel to the steadily dissipating Riku, and Sora, who looked as though he was ready to take on all four of them, if he needed to.

Xemnas tried his best to remain calm, but the threshold of his patience was starting to bend. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Once again, his eyes landed on Riku, and he silently observed his condition.

After a moment, he looked back at Seifer, inclining his head. "Seifer," he said through pursed lips. "Please secure the door to this warehouse."

"But sir—"

"Now."

Seifer swallowed, then shuffled forward, skating around Sora and Riku, nodding his head in a pathetically sheepish attempt at a greeting. He kicked the garage door a few times to shake off the debris, then pulled it down, standing in front of it like a sentry to ensure the prevention of exit or entry.

Riku wanted to point out that the whole exercise was pointless considering his condition, but then realized that the measure was probably meant for Sora, who didn't have such methods for escape. He did not like where this was going.

Xemnas next addressed Rai and Axel, the former trembling as though he were a skyscraper in an earthquake. "Please give our guest's body some room." He nodded at the crates, which Rai and Axel headed for—Rai scurrying, Axel shuffling. "We're going to try to keep this mess to a minimum."

Sora and Riku were completely confused just watching the issuing of orders, so when Xemnas focused his eyes on the two of them, fear raced up their spines.

Xemnas closed the distance between the two of them with slow steps, eye contact switching between Sora and Riku at regular intervals. When he was only a few steps away from either of them, he closed his eyes and let out another sigh. "I presume you are Riku."

Riku was uncomfortable having been addressed by someone he didn't know, but nodded hesitantly anyway. "Who wants to know?"

"It's would be in your best interest to keep most aspects of our exchange on a strictly functional basis. Interest in who I am and what I do could result in your demise on a more _permanent_ level."

Riku swallowed. Xemnas had a point. He was at the harbor after all.

"And you," Xemnas continued, looking at Sora with gold eyes touched only slightly with sympathy, "are…Sora."

"How the heck do you find out these things?" Axel shouted from the back of the room, crate in hand. Rai looked as though he was about to break into pieces at the outburst.

Xemnas smirked. "Continue your task. Leave me to handling this matter." He held Sora's gaze, golden eyes beating down upon him in a predatory manner; whatever trace of sympathy there was had vanished. "I do apologize for the amount of strife you two must have been under given a few miscalculations made by our organization."

Sora balled his fists, gritting his teeth. "I don't care about any of that right now. You know what happened to Riku."

"I do."

"And you have the power to fix it, don't you?"

"I do."

Sora kept the elation out of his facial expression as he spoke. "I'm not interested in anything that your organization has done. The past is the past, and while it angers me that you killed my best friend in the first place, I'm willing to overlook it if you bring him back."

Xemnas couldn't help but feel deeply amused at this. "And if I don't, your plan is…?"

"I'll find a way to get him back myself. Then, after I do, I'll hunt you down."

A great bark of laughter filled the inside of the warehouse, and it made Seifer feel uneasy. Xemnas laughing usually meant that someone or something was on an unstoppable course to permanent destruction. He spared a look to the back of the warehouse, and even Axel looked the slightest bit uncomfortable.

Xemnas subdued his laughter to a light chuckle, eyes narrow, and teeth gleaming in the dark. "You sound like quite a desperate man." He turned his attention to Riku. "And how do you feel about the matter?"

Riku, who was growing so dim at this point that he could barely see his own limbs in the night, didn't know what to say. "Living again sounds good."

Xemnas chuckled again. "If you don't mind me saying, you don't look healthy."

"Are you referring to the light, or the fact that I'm a ghost? Both would make sense."

Xemnas rubbed his eyes. "It was brought to my attention that despite my earlier warnings about the fragility of animates, a guarded hand was not utilized to bring you back to this location."

Riku tried to rub his eyes to get them to focus. "I didn't know ghosts could be killed either. I'd appreciate it if you would keep any other weaponry away from my friend in the future, though."

He looked over at Sora, who was no longer focused on the conversation, but rather the state of the ghostly body before him. It was now but a whisper of light now.

"Speaking of which," Xemnas said with a sigh, "you've brought me to my next point: The matter of your friend."

Sora looked up. "Who cares about me? Just put him back into his body!"

"When we encounter matters of this sort," he gestured towards Riku's body in the back. "We try our best to keep evidence of it to a minimum. That being said, your knowledge of exactly what has happened here has us quite concerned."

"What are you talking about?"

Xemnas looked at Sora evenly. "I'm afraid that even if we do restore your friend back to his current body, we will be unable to allow you to exist."


	15. Choice

Woot! The last chapter is here! it's a very strange sensation - I never feel quite "good" about finishing a story, and the sensation is particularly strange in this instance because I've admittedly been dedicating tome to other writing projects while posting. At any rate, thanks for reading, and enjoy the last chapter.

**Chapter 15: Choice**

* * *

Riku's jaw fell open. "What?"

Xemnas nodded solemnly, though Riku could tell that he hadn't really been that broken up about the whole thing. He had probably been the cause of many deaths both on Destiny Islands and elsewhere, and wouldn't even blink at the prospect of raising the number with a couple of unimportant young men. "I'm afraid that's the fact of the matter."

"But why?"

Xemnas shrugged. "It's simple really: too many witnesses. I simply can't allow you to carry on with the knowledge of The Organization's ministrations, especially since _you_ Sora, are an unrelated third party. It can't be helped."

"What about me?" Riku said through gritted teeth, eyes fighting to stay open, light slipping through the fingers he held at his stomach. "When I'm brought back to life, I'll know everything, too. If you kill Sora, I'll have more than enough information to go to the police."

"And we're willing to offer you a generous compensation package to ensure that you keep your knowledge of this unfortunate situation buried deep within the recesses of your mind, one of which is being granted a second chance to stay out of The Organization's affairs, if you know what I mean. Further interference from you will result in your immediate termination, which, I'm sure would be counter-progressive, given your purpose for standing before me."

Riku's face fell.

Xemnas took a deep breath, appearing as though all of the nerves in his body had been recently pinched."Unfortunately, this unfortunate situation is caused in no small part by some of the members of our organization." He blinked slowly. "Because of our involvement, I am offering this solution to you. Under normal circumstances, both of you would be terminated without question, however, you've been the brunt of _two _unfortunate mishaps. Consider my generosity before you make your decision." Xemnas paused to give Riku a moment to think. "You may be granted a second chance at life at the small expense of your friend's, or we terminate both of you and keep my generous offer."

Sora looked up at Riku, then back at Xemnas.

He hadn't intended to lose his own life in the process of saving Riku, but then again, he had only set out with the charge to get him put back into his body. He supposed, all things considered, that all other occurrences aside from doing just that were merely additional benefits that he hadn't thought to be optional until then.

Riku glared at Sora, he contemplative look on his face revealing every thought that was tumbling through his mind. If he even _heard_ Sora mutter something as ridiculous as sacrificing himself, Riku would summon every last bit of his strength to slap him squarely across the face. Getting back into his body in order to make up for mistakes of the past, renew lost time that he had spent with Sora sounded great, and was indeed the ideal conclusion to this horrible venture, but asking Sora to sacrifice his own life just so Riku could live his was out of the question. It would completely destroy everything he had worked towards.

Furthermore, Riku had already made his mistake. He was paying for it, wandering around as an apparition until the inevitable close of this existence at the end of the night. It wasn't right for Sora to have to pay a similar price just for offering to help.

He looked up helplessly at Xemnas, his eyes and body burning. "I refuse. I won't let you kill Sora."

"Riku," Sora hissed, but Riku ignored him.

"A lot of things have happened, and I'll admit that the majority of them were my fault. I won't let you enact a punishment that should be mine on Sora."

Xemnas snorted. "You don't have much of a choice in the matter. What's done is done, and I'd rather not have to find a proper burial place for two bodies."

"Let him go. Pretend that I was the one who found out your secret. Offer him the compensation, condemn him to secrecy. I don't care what it is you have to do."

"Riku, cut it out!" Sora yelled, wishing he could grab onto him to shake him. "Listen to what you're saying. We've been trying to find a way to get you back into your body, and _this_ is what you choose to do when you're finally given the opportunity?"

"I'm not going to let them kill you," Riku whispered. "It's not fair. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. The answer is no."

"Riku—"

Xemnas interrupted, impatience all over his face. "I'd rather we conclude this matter as quickly as possible. Riku, I'd be willing to grant your request, however fool hearted it may be. There really isn't much left of you to put in your body anyway. On the bright side, I've saved myself a considerable amount of trouble."

Riku nodded, but Sora stepped forward in outrage. "You can't do this! You can't!"

Xemnas ignored him and started towards the back of the warehouse where Axel and Rai were standing. "We're going to need to get rid of the body, but a fire here would cause too much suspicion, even in this obscure of an area. We'll take it with us."

Axel made a face.

Rai looked as though he was about to cry.

Sora fell to his knees; the sharp pain of the landing registering nothing but numbness rippling through his legs. "Riku, you can't just _go_ like this. We have to fight. You have to say something."

Riku looked at him, the shape of his body now no more than a dim pulsation of light in the darkness. "Sora, I've made my mistake. I can't possibly ask you to be punished for it."

Sora's eyes burned, and he felt the pressure of tears behind them. "Did you think about how I might feel about the whole thing? How am I supposed to live without a best friend anymore? That's not…that's not fair!"

Riku's shoulders lifted in a weak shrug, and he pulled the side of his lips up into a small grin. "Yeah, well, I'm a selfish jerk. That's not news."

"Riku, there has to be some other way we can fix this so both of us can live. There has to be! I can't just let you die!"

"You're not. You're letting yourself live. Now stop crying. It makes your face puffy."

Xemnas was in the back instructing Rai and Axel on the proper way to move he body, but Seifer was watching the whole exchange between Sora and Riku. He wasn't really the most sympathetic people out there, and it would be a far stretch to call himself emotive or even slightly kind.

It was because of these particular facts that Seifer was the most surprised to find that his heart was feeling heavy, and the tiniest bit of regret was starting to blossom in the pit of his stomach.

He hadn't felt guilty for stealing Larxene's knives, or inconvenienced several of the Members of The Organization into a skirmish that actually started all of this in the first place.

He didn't care that he threw Rai underneath the bus countless times that evening, or that he and Axel were probably going to be locked in a bout of conflict for the rest of eternity.

But here, as he was watching the heartfelt regretful exchange between these two friends, he was beginning to think that maybe he had made a few mistakes here and there, and that part of this—maybe all of it—might have been his fault.

He stared at Riku, the light draining out of his body just as quickly as the tears were streaming down Sora's face, and he didn't like it. Killing Riku had been one thing, but killing him a second time in front of his best friend was an entirely different matter. If someone had attempted to do the same to Rai, someone who he admittedly didn't show much to respect to very often, he didn't know what he would do.

He looked back at Xemnas, then back at Sora and Riku. He really should just continue to stand guard, wait for the festivities to be over, and then trudge on back to the boat with Xemnas and the others in preparation for his massive punishment. Interfering would only erase the few points he could have been accumulating for being obedient, and he didn't have many of those to begin with.

Really, all he had to do was stand there for a few more minutes, and everything would be over. Riku would disappear into the night, Sora would be bought off to keep the secret—or maybe Xemnas had a spell up his sleeve somewhere to force him into secrecy—and the four of them would march off to The Organization's vessel with Riku's body where they'd return home, get rid of it, and forget all of this had ever happened. _Well_, he supposed Xemnas, and Axel could pretend it never happened. Rai and he would be reaping the punishment for this for quite some time, he thought, as he peeked at Xemnas's tense facial expression.

He really should just keep his mouth shut.

But then he felt that heaviness in his heart, at the prospect of doing so, and realized…

That maybe this was what _guilt_ felt like.

Well, _that_ was new.

Guilt wasn't something he experienced often. He didn't like it. Could it be that even _he_ could feel badly about something that was admittedly undeserved? When would it go away?

_Did _guilt go away?

_"…Guilt leads to sleeplessness, ulcers, and headaches."_

Seifer rolled his eyes, as he recalled the conversation with Rai less than a day ago, and thought it horribly ironic that his words had come back to bite him in the face _now_ of all times. He didn't have much time to relieve himself of such a cruel fate, if the rate at which Riku was dissolving proved anything.

Seifer swallowed.

Well, if he was going to be punished for the rest of his life, he was at least going to make it the most spectacular punishment The Organization had ever seen.

"Xemnas, sir?" Seifer coughed, already regretting opening his mouth.

"You're to stand guard until further notice," Xemnas replied not even bothering to turn around.

"Yes sir…of course sir. It's just that, something occurred to me."

"What?"

Seifer rolled his eyes, unable to believe that he was doing this. "Maybe getting rid of Riku isn't such a good idea."

Xemnas turned on his heel; Axel and Rai immediately stopped what they were doing.

Axel threw the crates he was moving back to the floor and took a seat on top of one of them, suddenly interested. If Seifer must have certainly had aims to dig his hole even deeper, then he was in for a very exciting show.

"What?" Xemnas and Rai said in unison. Rai quieted and Xemnas continued. "And why would that be?"

Seifer found that his feet were shaking a bit. "Well, Xemnas your Excellency, I was just thinking, that maybe we could alleviate some of the burden you've been under lately. Having to handle a situation like this certainly hasn't been easy on you, and I'd like to make this situation as easy for you as possible."

Xemnas lifted an eyebrow, eyes shining with just a hint of annoyance. "Are you telling me that you think I've overlooked something in my decision?"

Seifer threw his arms out and waved them defensively. "No! Never! I would never say such a thing, sir. I merely suggesting an alternative that could be beneficial to you. After all, you've done so much for us and the rest of The Organization, that I think it would be reprehensibly disrespectful of me not to point out an area where your comfort can be taken into consideration."

Xemnas did not look pleased, but he lifted his chin as if to invite Seifer a moment to speak. He didn't have much time though, Seifer observed, as he spared a glance at Riku. Whatever he was about to say was going to have to be dazzlingly brilliant.

He cleared his throat. "Well sir, when I first arrived here with The Organization with the intent to teach this brat a lesson, we _did_ have him put to work."

"Meaning?"

"Well, we had him load a shipment of packages on the pallet." He inclined his head towards the still-wrapped packages not too far away, and continued. "Those are for the Setzer collaboration. Though they weren't supposed to be delivered for another week or so, they were safely put on the pallet without so much as a complaint. In fact, putting that stuff there isn't even part of his normal job, so I was quite surprised that they were packed with such expertise."

Seifer glanced over at Riku and Sora who were just as surprised that he was saying all of this as Xemnas was. He chose to look away, lest he change his mind.

"I'm not sure what you're trying to get to, Seifer, but it would be in your best interest to make your point before I lose my patience."

"Yes sir!" Seifer mentally pieced a few sentences together. "From what I've seen, few here have handled The Organization's materials here so well. Furthermore, he knows what we're capable of. If we create a position in which we make him the Organization's exclusive shipping…eh…guy, we won't have to go through all of the trouble hiding the body and laying evidence for a realistic murder."

Xemnas rolled his eyes. "We've employed Naminé to do such things. It's no trouble at all."

"Even still, we have no one to guarantee that all of our shipments to Destiny Islands will be taken care of properly. Besides, she's still working with Saïx on his latest misdemeanor. We can't expect her to invent and lay evidence for two murders on such short notice. If we leave Riku alive, he can see to it that our packages make it to this warehouse safely, and Naminé will be able to sleep this week."

Xemnas looked incredibly skeptical, and for a moment, Seifer was convinced that he wasn't going to buy it, and was possibly concocting even more hurtful elements of his punishment. When his expression became contemplative, though, Seifer wondered if maybe, just maybe he had stepped out of a nightmare and into am enchanted, sunlit forest.

Before he was yet again plunged back into darkness, Seifer thought it best to continue. "Consider this, sir. He can keep watch over the Setzer delivery for the next few days, just to ensure that they're properly handled. When they are—and I'm sure they will be—we can continue to utilize his…er…shipping skills...and never again will we have to pay for botched deliveries."

Xemnas rolled the thought over in his mind for a moment, looked over at Riku, then to Sora. "That still doesn't solve our problem with _him_." Waved his hand in Sora's direction. "And I'm not willing to hand out more money to someone who hasn't even gone through the ritual process."

"Then this is a win-win situation!" Seifer grinned, proud of himself for the closing statement he had self-admittedly only considered for a moment. "We can use Sora as a paycheck. Riku works, we let Sora live. If anything should go awry—and of course, nothing will—we can just come back and kill both of them!"

Sora opened his mouth to say something about being utilized as a token, but Riku shook his head against it.

"Sir, really, we don't have much to lose, and only convenience to gain." He nodded to add emphasis. "Preying on desperate people provides the most profitable outcome. I have plenty of experience in this area. I work with Rai."

Rai muttered something from the back of the room, but fear of being heard by Xemnas kept his voice no higher than a whisper.

Xemnas looked thoughtful, then irritated, then neutral, and Seifer imagined a mental game of Russian roulette being played between the two of them, in which only one of the gun chambers was empty and the rest contained deadly, _poisonous,_ explosive bullets.

"Seifer," he said after a moment. "You surprise me. I didn't think you to be the type to display such an act of valor."

"Not at all, sir." Seifer said, straightening up and refusing to blink. "I'm merely trying to benefit The Organization as a whole."

Xemnas sighed. "Well, be that as it may, I'm not so certain that this plan of yours will be fruitful." He looked over at Riku.

Five sets of eyes were locked on his dissipating form. So much of the light had waned that nearly the entire left side of his body had disappeared.

Sora stopped breathing.

Riku closed his eyes.

Xemnas watched quietly.

Seifer cleared his throat. "Well, we could still give it a try. If it doesn't work, and I'm wrong, I'm willing to give up my…" he gagged on the words that were leaving his mouth. He may have had felt a tiny bit of sympathy for Sora and Riku, but he wasn't _crazy._ "I'm willing to give up my _partner's_ current status in The Organization. As every good sentry knows, he is only as good as his comrades. Losing Rai would be more of a tragedy than losing my own position."

"Seifer, what's wrong with you, y'know?"

Axel barked out a laugh.

Xemnas rolled his eyes. It was getting late, and he was growing ever more tired of being stalled on the return to headquarters. "I make no guarantees about the success of this operation. I meant what I said."

"Yes sir. I'm willing to accept the consequences for failure."

"I'm not, y'know?"

Xemnas shuffled to Riku's side and gave him a once over. "This…is going to be complicated."

Axel groaned in annoyance. "I _just_ moved all of this junk out of the way. I'm not lifting anything else."

"Quiet," Xemnas muttered, eyes hardening at the fading Riku, certain there wasn't even enough left of him to put back into his body. "You," he looked at Riku. "Come with me."

Xemnas showed no apparent haste in walking back to the body where it was neatly arranged on the dirty ground.

Riku winced. Looking at him made him uncomfortable, so much so that he wasn't sure he even wanted to get back into it. He looked behind him, where Sora was watching with wide eyes and clenched fists.

No choice left, then.

He stared at the body for a moment longer, then looked up at Xemnas expectantly. "Alright then, what do I have to do?"

Xemnas sighed. "I'm going to be perfectly honest with you, which I think is fitting given all off the confusion lately. The likelihood of this being successful is slim. Frankly speaking, there's barely enough of you to fill up a doll, much less your body."

"Well, I guess Rai's going to be jobless then."

"It seems that way."

"Is that going to keep you from trying?"

Xemnas closed his eyes and pinched his eyebrows. "I suppose we owe you that much."

"Good. Let's go then."

Xemnas's upper lip curled, and he sighed in a defeated kind of way. "Stand where you are. Don't move, don't talk."

Riku did as he was told, then watched as Xemnas clasped his hands together, muttered something that sounded a lot like something a child learning to speak would babble, and his hands began to emit a flickering garnet light.

Riku struggled to hold his position, both because he was fading away, and because he didn't know what the light meant. He contemplated inquiring about the show, but before he could open his mouth to speak, Xemnas clasped his hands together, and Riku felt himself crash face-first into his body, as if being fired from a cannon.

Sora watched the display with knees so weak he thought he might fall to the ground. _Now_ he had seen everything, he decided, unsure of what to do. He was torn between moving to get a better look at what was happening, and standing right where he was for fear of damaging something. He didn't trust Xemnas all that well, but he also didn't want to distract him from something so important. It was for this reason that he chose to stand where he was, breath halted, eyes unblinking, and knees shaking.

Xemnas hovered over Riku for what seemed like an hour, light from his hands emitting various colors, the central being the initial garnet. Axel, Seifer and Rai also watched with interest, having never before been subjected to some of Xemnas's more elaborate skills. It was a reminder, Seifer decided of just how powerful Xemnas was, and how lucky Seifer himself was that he wasn't currently more than a mere stain on the ground, given his current organizational infractions.

He sucked in air and continued to watch, and the body below Xemnas's feet began to glow.

A few more moments passed, and Xemnas finally lowered his hands. The light began to fade, and he closed his hands together, closing the source of the light immediately. He was frowning, but Seifer had come to learn that it could be good _or_ bad.

Sharply, Xemnas turned and glared behind him, mainly at Seifer. "We're done here. Let's go."

Seifer's mouth hung open. "…You're done?"

Xemnas didn't say anything, and walked away from the body still lying on the ground. "Seifer, Rai, Axel, we're going to the vessel immediately. Now."

He marched away from the two of them and headed for the garage door in which Seifer was standing in front of.

Sora looked back at Riku, silent and still on the ground, then at Xemnas who was preparing to leave. Riku's ghost was gone, but that didn't mean that it was back in his body where it belonged. He swallowed hard and frowned. "Did it work?"

Xemnas, who was now at the front of a vanguard of unhappy looking members of the Organization turned to him and glowered. "What do _you_ think?" With that, he let out a short, exasperated sigh and pulled open the garage door.

Sora looked after him for a final moment, but couldn't be bothered to ponder his words for long. Instead, he wasted no time in closing the distance between himself and the body on the ground a few meters away.

It was the Riku that he remembered, but he battered from the final fight his body could handle, unmoving, lifeless.

Experimentally, Sora reached out and poked his arm.

It was cold.

Eyes wide with fear of the unthinkable, Sora gripped the limb and shook it. Coldness was wrought throughout. He grabbed for Riku's hands, his shoulders, his chest. Everything was cold and hard, just as was the way with death.

Heart hammering against his ribs, Sora pushed back onto his knees. Xemnas had done something wrong. Riku hadn't been fixed. Trying not to let the panic overcome him, Sora took in a few deep breaths. If he hurried, he would still be able to get back to the boat, catch the four of them before they returned to wherever their headquarters was, and force them to…do _something._

_Yes_, he thought, standing to make a run for the garage door. He still had time. If he could stop them, he would force Xemnas to find another solution. Then Riku would be alive again, and they could make up for all of the lost time, and correct the things he had told Kairi, and scold Riku for being a self-righteous jerk all the time, and…

Then suddenly, Sora felt something cold and fleshy wrap itself around his ankle.

And he smiled.

Because that coldness felt awfully similar to the hands of the dead.

* * *

.

"Have I told you before that you're made of magic fairy dust?"

"Have I told you before that you're an idiot and I hate you?"

Riku grinned, and accepted a proffered ice pack, placing it gingerly on his head. "Maybe a few times."

Sora frowned, sitting down in a chair adjacent from his couch, watching Riku as he had so many times before. The ice pack was a welcome change from the frozen vegetables he had used up during Riku's usual injuries, but he supposed upon further thought, that he rather liked that his friend was still capable of receiving the bumps and bruises from his frequent squabbles down at the harbor.

If a few puddles of melted ice and a package of peas were his only sacrifice for having a real, living, breathing Riku back in his life, he supposed the sacrifice was worthy.

"What happened this time?"

Riku shrugged one shoulder, the other having been recently relocated. "One of my co-workers this time, believe it or not. Got angry that I insisted on moving the shipments to the warehouse instead of just unloading."

Sora wrinkled his nose, remembering the conditions of their arrangement; the arrangement that allowed both him and Riku to sit here and discuss things, and _not_ float around as weightless images of their human selves. He tried to take some of the scolding tone out of his words as he spoke. "How'd that go?"

Riku snorted, insulted that Sora even had to ask. "The load is where it needs to be, if that's what you're getting at. Totally worth a black eye and a busted shoulder."

"It's not like this is anything new," Sora rolled his eyes. "Glad to see that you're in one piece, though."

"Yeah, me too."

Sora picked himself up out of the chair and wandered off towards the kitchen. "I'm going to get you more ice for your shoulder. Don't move."

"I'm not going anywhere."

Sora sighed as he walked into the kitchen, stepping over toys and newspapers, odds and ends that had accumulated there over the course of the years. It seemed strange going back to the way things were. He knew that Riku had only been a ghost for a day, and had already been back among the land of the living for a solid week, but there was still a nagging tension pulling at him. It happened every time he saw Riku—which had been frequent since their conquests with Seifer and the others. Sora was hard pressed to let Riku out of his sight since then—every time he went to work. It pulled at him when he went to sleep at night, and when he woke up each morning. It was there, an ever present signal that finiteness was real; death was real. Life was real.

He peered over his shoulder at Riku lounging on his couch, picking at the medical tape Sora had used to splint two of his fingers, and was vexed. The broken bones and bruises were once again a part of Riku—and subsequently Sora's lives, despite how much he had silently hoped Riku would quit working at the harbor after everything was over. He supposed though, that the harbor was destined to be a part of his life forever, much like what Sora had intended for his friendship with Riku.

On the other hand, though, he was glad. The injuries were a symbol of many things, least of them being a successful fight down at the harbor. It meant that Riku was once again back in his body, that he wasn't a ghost wandering around and shifting between walls, making sugar packets dance, and pushing Sora into awkward social situations. It meant that he was real, and whole, and able to be part of a relationship that wasn't separated by the chasm of life and death. The two of them could exist as they once were, _better _than they once were, and maybe things were going to be okay.

Sora collected the ice, and closed the door to the freezer, and returned to the living room.

Riku grinned. "Were you in there counting the cubes? How many do I owe you?"

Sora arranged the bag on his shoulder and pulled his face into a glower. "Thousands. Then we'll factor in the amount of money you owe me in vegetables and frozen steak. Looks like you're accruing quite the debt."

"I'll make it up to you. Dinner on me?"

"You'd better believe it."

* * *

Thank you all for staying with this story. While it is complete, I would very much appreciate any and all feedback. Please take a moment to offer a review. Thanks!


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